Method and system for a scalable computer-telephony integration system

ABSTRACT

Various aspects may include storing sets of call agent login information for several call agents within the computer-telephony integration system and across several independent computing systems in a contact center login database. Additionally, various aspects may include generating several contact center service categories and sets of contact information for each contact center service category, which may be stored in a contact center directory database. When an incoming call is received from a customer, various aspects may include obtaining customer call information from the customer and generating a customer call key, which may be stored as a reference to the customer call information in a contact center customer call information database. The call key may be used to reduce an amount of data electronically transferred between call agents during telephone call transfers.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to and the benefit of the filing dateof provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 62/137,873 entitled “MethodAnd System For A Scalable Computer-Telephony Integration System,” filedon Mar. 25, 2015, the entire contents of which is hereby expresslyincorporated herein by reference. Additionally, this application isrelated to the following applications: co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/075,679, entitled “Method And System For AScalable Computer-Telephony Integration System” and filed concurrentlyherewith; and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/075,685entitled “Method And System For A Scalable Computer-TelephonyIntegration System” and filed concurrently herewith; the entiredisclosures of each of which are hereby expressly incorporated byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure generally relates to methods, systems, apparatus,and non-transitory computer readable media for a scalablecomputer-telephony integration system and, more particularly togenerating and accessing centralized databases for call agents acrossseveral independent systems to interact within the computer-telephonyintegration system.

BACKGROUND

Today, in a competitive sales market, including insurance sales,organizations often field or service customer calls via a contactcenter. The contact center may be a unit within the organization or aseparate business that the independent organization contracts with toreceive customer calls, for example. In any case, the calls to thecontact center are typically handled by providing contact information,such as an 800 number for a customer to call. When the customer callsthe 800 number, a contact center call agent answers the phone, manuallyconfirms the customer's identity, identifies the purpose of the call,helps the customer, as needed, and ends the call. In some scenarios, thecall may first be answered by a computer which may request a series ofinputs from the user for determining where to direct the call, and basedupon the received inputs, may direct the call to a contact center callagent who responds to the call as described above.

However, large organizations may have several divisions where thedivisions operate nearly independently of each other, and/or where eachdivision has a separate contact center or a different group of callagents responding to the calls. For example, an insurance organizationmay include an automobile insurance division, a life insurance division,a banking division, a homeowner's insurance division, etc.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present embodiments may relate to generating and accessingcentralized databases for call agents across several independent systemsto interact within a computer-telephony integration (CTI) system. TheCTI system may include a CTI server device, which may receive and/orstore customer call information for customers who initiate calls withthe CTI system. The CTI server device may also store a customer call keyas a reference to the customer call information, so that the customercall key may be transferred from the CTI system to a call agent and/orfrom call agent to call agent when a call is transferred. In addition tocustomer call information, the CTI server device may combine call agentlogin information from several independent systems and store the callagent login information in a centralized database, which may beaccessible by all of the call agents across the several independentsystems.

Moreover, the CTI server device may generate and/or store a contactcenter directory, including contact information for call agents, whichmay be categorized by contact center service category. For example, thecontact center directory may include an automobile insurance deductiblecontact center service category, which may include contact informationfor ten call agents each assigned to automobile insurance deductibles.Call agents across the several independent systems may access thecontact center directory to communicate with other call agents assignedto a particular department or contact center service category.

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of managing a call agent tocall agent telephone call transfer may be provided. The method mayinclude: (1) receiving, by a first call agent located at a contactcenter, a customer call from a customer and customer call informationfor responding to the customer call; (2) generating (via the one or moreprocessors) a customer call key corresponding to the customer callinformation, wherein the customer call key is transferred from callagent to call agent in a computer-telephony integration system when thecustomer call is transferred; and/or (3) storing (via the one or moreprocessors) the customer call information and the customer call key as areference to the corresponding customer call information in a database.The method may further include: (4) transferring the customer call (viathe one or more processors and/or wired or wireless communication and/ordata transmission) from the first call agent to a second call agentalong with the customer call key; (5) using the call to retrieve (viathe one or more processors) the customer information associated with thecustomer call key from the database; and/or (6) presenting (via the oneor more processors and/or wired or wireless communication and/or datatransmission) the customer call information on a display for use by thesecond call agent during the customer call with the customer tofacilitate alleviating electronically transferring sensitive informationbetween call agents and/or to reduce an amount of data electronicallytransferred between call agents during telephone call transfers. Themethod may include additional, fewer, or alternative actions, includingthose discussed elsewhere herein.

In another aspect, a system of managing a call agent to call agenttelephone call transfer may be provided. The system may include one ormore processors; a communication network; a database; a first contactcenter device for a first call agent located at a contact center(wherein a customer call from a customer and customer call informationfor responding to the customer call are received at the first contactcenter device); a second contact center device for a second call agent;and/or a non-transitory computer-readable memory communicatively coupledto the one or more processors, the first contact center device, thesecond contact center device, the communication network, and thedatabase and storing thereon instructions. When executed by the one ormore processors, the instructions may cause the system to: (1) receivethe customer call information, via the communication network and fromthe first call agent; (2) generate a customer call key corresponding tothe customer call information, wherein the customer call key istransferred from call agent to call agent in a computer-telephonyintegration system when the customer call is transferred; and/or (3)store the customer call information and the customer call key as areference to the corresponding customer call information in thedatabase. The instructions may further cause the system to: (4) transferthe customer call, via the communication network, from the first callagent to the second call agent along with the customer call key; (5) usethe call key to retrieve the customer information associated with thecustomer call key from the database; and/or (6) present, via thecommunication network, the customer call information on a display foruse by the second call agent during the customer call with the customerto facilitate alleviating electronically transferring sensitiveinformation between call agents and/or to reduce an amount of dataelectronically transferred between call agents during telephone calltransfers. The system may include additional, fewer, or alternatecomponents and/or functionality, including that discussed elsewhereherein.

Advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art fromthe following description of the preferred embodiments which have beenshown and described by way of illustration. As will be realized, thepresent embodiments may be capable of other and different embodiments,and their details are capable of modification in various respects.Accordingly, the drawings and description are to be regarded asillustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures described below depict various aspects of the system andmethods disclosed therein. It should be understood that each figuredepicts an embodiment of a particular aspect of the disclosed system andmethods, and that each of the figures is intended to accord with apossible embodiment thereof. Further, wherever possible, the followingdescription refers to the reference numerals included in the followingfigures, in which features depicted in multiple figures are designatedwith consistent reference numerals.

There are shown in the drawings arrangements which are presentlydiscussed, it being understood, however, that the present embodimentsare not limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities shown,wherein.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computer network and system onwhich an exemplary scalable computer-telephony integration (CTI) systemmay operate in accordance with an exemplary aspect of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 2A illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary CTI server device inaccordance with an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2B illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary contact centerdevice in accordance with an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3A depicts a flow diagram representing an exemplary method forgenerating and/or accessing a contact center login database inaccordance with an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3B depicts an exemplary contact center login display in accordancewith an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3C depicts an exemplary contact center login selection screen inaccordance with an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4A depicts an exemplary contact center directory display inaccordance with an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4B depicts a first exemplary system administrator directory displayfor adding and/or deleting contact center service categories from thedirectory in accordance with an exemplary aspect of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4C depicts a second exemplary system administrator directorydisplay for assigning contact information to a contact center servicecategory in accordance with an exemplary aspect of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4D depicts a third exemplary system administrator directory displayfor removing contact information from a contact center service categoryin accordance with an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4E depicts a fourth exemplary system administrator directorydisplay for adding contact information to the directory and assigningcategories to the added contact information in accordance with anexemplary aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 depicts a flow diagram representing an exemplary method forgenerating and/or accessing a contact center directory database inaccordance with an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6A depicts a flow diagram representing an exemplary method forgenerating and/or accessing a contact center customer call informationdatabase in accordance with an exemplary aspect of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6B depicts an exemplary call agent display screen in accordancewith an exemplary aspect of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 7 depicts an exemplary presence display in accordance with anexemplary aspect of the present disclosure.

The Figures depict preferred embodiments for purposes of illustrationonly. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the followingdiscussion that alternative embodiments of the systems and methodsillustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principlesof the invention described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

To generate a scalable CTI system, a CTI server device may receive callagent login information from each of several independent systems. Forexample, the CTI server device may receive usernames and/or passwordsfor call agents within each of the automobile insurance division, lifeinsurance division, banking or loan division, homeowner's insurancedivision, etc., of an insurance company. The CTI server device may thencombine all of the call agent login information across the severalindependent systems into a single, centralized contact center logindatabase. In this manner, call agents associated with any division maylogin to the CTI system via the centralized contact center logindatabase. Moreover, call agents with multiple user profiles (e.g., acall agent associated with both the automobile insurance division andthe life insurance division), may login to either user profile via thecentralized contact center login database. Furthermore, systemadministrators may add, remove, and/or update call agent logininformation via the single contact center login database as opposed toaccessing several databases corresponding to each of the independentsystems.

After logging in to the CTI system, a call agent may view a contactcenter directory, which may include contact information for interactingwith other call agents within the CTI system, and/or which may beorganized by contact center service category. For example, the CTIserver device may generate indications of several contact center servicecategories, such as support, fire claims central, automobile claimscentral, insurance quoting, vehicle or home loans, etc. The CTI serverdevice may also generate sets of contact information for contacting callagents assigned to a contact center service category. For example, theCTI server device may generate a name and phone number for contactingcall agent John Doe in fire claims. Each call agent may have permissionto view some of the contact center service categories and correspondingcontact information on a display generated by the CTI server device. Inthis manner, the call agent may transfer calls and/or speak with a callagent assigned to the contact center service category who may be betterequipped to respond to the customer's requests.

Additionally, when the customer initiates a call with the CTI system,the CTI system may ask the customer a series of questions fordetermining where to direct the call. For example, an interactive voiceresponse (IVR) system, may obtain answers to questions such as, “Are youcalling about questions with regard to claims? . . . a deductible? . . .or premium payments?” or “Please state your policy number.” The CTIserver may then obtain the customer's answers along with additionalcustomer call information, such as the phone number which the customerused to make the call, or previously stored information associated withthe customer's policy number, such as the type of insurance associatedwith the policy number, the date in which the policy was purchased, thesubscriber name, etc.

The customer's answers and the additional customer call information maybe stored as customer call information in a contact center customer callinformation database. Additionally, the CTI server may generate acustomer call key which may be a series of alphanumeric characters,and/or may store the customer call key in the contact center customercall information database as a reference to the customer callinformation for the customer. In this manner, when the CTI systemtransfers the customer's call to a call agent, and/or when a call agenttransfers the customer's call to another call agent, the customer callkey may be passed rather than the customer call information for thecustomer to minimize the amount of data transferred over thecommunication network.

The present aspects advantageously may allow for system administratorsto add, remove, and/or update data within the CTI system via centralizeddatabases as opposed to separate databases for each independent systemwithin an organization. Moreover, the present aspects may advantageouslyminimize the amount of data transferred over CTI communication networksby transmitting customer call keys as references to stored customer callinformation, thereby reducing bandwidth usage and/or increasingprocessing speed within the CTI system.

Generally speaking, the techniques for generating a scalable CTI may beimplemented in one or more network servers such as a CTI server, in oneor more contact center devices, in one or more customer telephonedevices, and/or a system that includes several of these devices.However, for clarity, the examples below focus primarily on anembodiment in which a CTI server device receives a call initiated by acustomer from a customer telephone device. The CTI server device mayalso access and/or generate a contact center login database, a contactcenter directory database, and/or a contact center customer callinformation database. The CTI server device may obtain login informationfor a call agent from one of the contact center devices, and afterverifying the call agent login information via the contact center logindatabase, the CTI server device may provide access to data within theCTI system to the contact center device according to the call agent'spermissions.

For example, the contact center device may obtain access to some of thecontact center service categories and associated sets of contactinformation from the contact center directory database. The CTI serverdevice may also transfer the call to the contact center device, as wellas customer call information received from the customer, by providing acustomer call key to the call agent, which references the customer callinformation in the contact center customer call information database.

I. Exemplary Scalable CTI Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates various aspects of an exemplary environmentimplementing a scalable CTI system 100. The high-level architectureincludes both hardware and software applications, as well as variousdata communications channels for communicating data between the varioushardware and software components. The scalable CTI system 100 may beroughly divided into components within a contact center network 102(e.g. components which may have access to secure data files for aninsurance provider), and components outside of the contact centernetwork 104 (e.g. components which may not have access to the securedata files). The components within the contact center network 102 mayinclude a CTI server device 110, and/or a plurality of contact centerdevices 152-158 which may be communicatively connected through a contactcenter network 150, as described below. The components outside of thecontact center network 104 may include a plurality of customer telephonedevices 106-109 which may be communicatively connected to the componentswithin the contact center network 102 through a network 130, asdescribed below.

The CTI server device 110 may have an associated contact center logindatabase 124 for storing call agent login information obtained fromseveral independent systems, an associated contact center customer callinformation database 126 for storing customer call information andassociated customer call keys corresponding to phone calls received fromcustomers, and/or an associated contact center directory database 128for storing indications of contact center service categories, and/orsets of contact information for call agents assigned to each contactcenter service categories.

Moreover, the CTI server device 110 may include one or more processor(s)112 such as a microprocessor coupled to a memory 114. The memory 114 maybe tangible, non-transitory memory and may include any types of suitablememory modules, including random access memory (RAM), read-only memory(ROM), flash memory, other types of persistent memory, etc. The memory114 may store, for example instructions executable on the processors 112for an interactive voice response (IVR) module 116, a customer callinformation module (CCIM) 118, a login module (LM) 120, and/or adirectory module (DM) 122. The CTI server device 110 is described inmore detail below with reference to FIG. 2A.

A. Exemplary Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Module

When a customer initiates a call with the scalable CTI system 100, theIVR module 116 may communicate with the customer through a series ofquestions, which the customer may answer by dialing numbers on thekeypad of the customer telephone device which was used to make the call,and/or by providing voice responses. For example, the IVR module 116 mayinclude a text-to-speech engine, which may provide an audio output tothe customer stating, “If you are calling to file an insurance claim,press ‘1’; if you are calling to ask about a deductible or premiumpayment, press ‘2’; if you would like to purchase an insurance policy,press ‘3’; otherwise, stay on the line for further options.” Inresponse, the customer may dial a number on her customer telephonedevice, and the IVR module may provide additional requests based uponthe response, transfer the call to a call agent and/or provide an answerto the customer's inquiry based upon the customer's input.

Additionally, the IVR module 116 may receive a voice response from thecustomer such as, “filing an insurance claim,” and a speech recognitionengine within the IVR module may transcribe the voice response to text.The IVR module 116 may then provide additional requests based upon theresponse, transfer the call to a call agent, and/or provide an answer tothe customer's inquiry based upon the customer's input.

In some embodiments, the IVR module 116 may also include a naturallanguage processing engine for determining the customer's inquiry basedupon the voice response. For example, if the IVR module 116 provides theaudio output, “What is the subject of your inquiry?” and the customerresponds, “Filing an insurance claim,” “Applying for an insuranceclaim,” or “I want to file an insurance claim,” the natural languageprocessing engine may determine that the customer would like to file aninsurance claim, and the IVR module 116 may then provide additionalrequests based upon this response, and/or transfer the call to a callagent.

In other embodiments, a call agent may communicate with the customerthrough a series of questions and/or receive voice responses for thecustomer. The call agent may then provide additional requests based uponthe customer's responses and/or record the customer's responses at thecall agent's contact center device.

B. Exemplary Customer Call Information Module (CCIM)

The CCIM 118 may receive the customer's responses from the IVR module116 and/or store the responses as customer call information, forexample, in the contact center customer call information database 126.In other embodiments, the CCIM 118 may receive the customer responsesfrom a call agent's contact center device. The customer call informationmay include identification information for the customer such as thecustomer's name, address, phone number, etc. The customer callinformation may also include the subject of the customer's inquiry, suchas filing a claim, purchasing an insurance policy, policy coverageinformation, etc. Moreover, the customer call information may includethe type of insurance policy owned by the customer, such as lifeinsurance or homeowner's insurance, a policy number for the insurancepolicy, a group number for the insurance policy, etc.

In some embodiments, at least some of the customer call information maybe determined by the CCIM 118. For example, the customer's phone numbermay be obtained automatically when the customer makes the call without arequest for this information from the IVR module 116. Moreover, the CCIM118 may access a customer database, which may include personalinformation for customers who have previously purchased insurancepolicies with the insurance provider. For example, the customer databasemay store a customer name, phone number, address, and/or policy numbersfor each of the insurance policies purchased by each customer. Asmentioned above, the CCIM 118 may automatically obtain the customer'sphone number when the customer calls the scalable CTI system 100, and/orcompare the phone number to phone numbers within the customer database.If there is a match, the CCIM 118 may obtain personal information forthe customer without a request for this information from the IVR module116.

In any event, the CCIM 118 may generate a customer call key and/or storethe customer call key in a database as a reference to the customer callinformation. The customer call key may be a set of alphanumeric and/ornumeric characters. The customer call key may be randomly generated,generated in ascending or descending order based upon the previouslygenerated customer call keys, and/or generated in any other suitablemanner. For example, the customer call key may be an eight digitalphanumeric character string. The CCIM 118 may associate the customercall key with the customer call information. As a result, the customercall information may be obtained using the customer call key in thecontact center customer call information database 126.

C. Exemplary Login Module (LM)

The LM 120 may obtain call agent login information from severalindependent systems within the contact center network 150. For example,the scalable CTI system 100 may be associated with a large organization,such as an insurance provider (or financial services provider) thatincludes several divisions (such as an automobile insurance division, alife insurance division, a banking division, an insurance claimsdivision, an insurance sales division, an insurance underwritingdivision, a homeowner's insurance division, etc.). Each division mayinclude a contact center sub-network, which may include several callagents and associated call agent login information for the call agentsto login to the contact center sub-network and/or access secure datafiles within the particular sub-network. For example, call agents withinthe banking division may have access to secure banking files, such asbanking information for customers who open bank accounts. The contactcenter sub-network for a division may also include one or severalservers (not shown), where each server stores call agent profilescorresponding to the call agent login information. A call agent mayaccess her call agent profile by logging in to a particular serverwithin a contact center sub-network using her call agent logininformation.

In some embodiments, call agents may be part of several divisions withinthe organization, such as the life insurance division and the automobileinsurance division, and as a result, the call agents may have multiplecall agent profiles, each accessible from a different server within acontact center sub-network. In some embodiments, a division may not havedirect access to another division within the organization.

The call agent login information for the call agents to login to thecontact center sub-network may include a username, password, and/orphone number to access a call agent profile. The corresponding callagent profile may include permissions which the call agent needs orpossesses to access certain secure data files within the contact centersub-network.

For example, a call agent profile may belong to security groups withinthe contact center sub-network, where each security group has permissionto access certain secure data files. Membership within a security groupmay be based upon the call agent's job function and/or geographiclocation. When the call agent logs in to the contact center sub-network,the call agent may access information based upon the permissionsassociated with the call agent profile corresponding to the username,password, and/or phone number that the call agent provides for loggingin.

In any event, the LM 120 may obtain call agent login information fromeach contact center sub-network and/or corresponding to several callagents, along with a reference to an indication of a particular serverwithin the contact center sub-network which stores the correspondingcall agent profiles. For example, a banking division may include contactcenter sub-network A, which may include Server 1, Server 2, and Server3. An insurance claims division may include contact center sub-networkB, which may include Server 4, Server 5, and Server 6, and/or aninsurance sales division may include contact center sub-network C, whichmay include Server 7, Server 8, and Server 9. Call agent John Doe may bepart of the insurance claims division where his call agent profile maybe retrieved from Server 5. He may also be part of the insurance salesdivision where a second call agent profile may be retrieved from Server9.

The LM 120 may combine the call agent login information from eachdivision within the contact center network 150, and/or store thecombined call agent login information and references to indications ofcorresponding servers, which store call agent profiles for each callagent in a contact center login database 124. For example, the callagent login information may be combined through a series of databaseoperations, such as table relations and/or joins.

When a call agent logs in to the scalable CTI system 100, the username,password, and/or phone number provided by the call agent may be comparedto login information within the contact center login database 124. Whenthere is a match, the LM 120 may retrieve the indication of thecorresponding server stored with the matching login information, and/orestablish a communication between the call agent and the correspondingserver (e.g., Server 6), for example, via the contact center network150. The call agent may then access her call agent profile via thecorresponding server.

In this manner, each call agent within the contact center network 150may login via the contact center login database 124 and the CTI server110 and/or the LM 120 may dynamically route the call agent to the servercorresponding to the call agent's login information. Call agents may nothave to establish communication with different databases and/or serversaccording to a particular division or contact center sub-network.Moreover, call agents who are associated with multiple divisions maylogin using login information for any of the divisions that they areassociated with, and/or may not need to login using separate platformsbased upon the particular division that the login information isassociated with.

In some embodiments, when a call agent is associated with multipledivisions within the organization, the LM 120 may determine thatmultiple instances of call agent login information correspond to thesame call agent. The LM 120 may associate each set of call agent logininformation that corresponds to the same call agent, and in somescenarios, when the call agent logs in to the scalable CTI system 100,the call agent may be provided with a user interface, which may allowthe call agent to choose one of the sets of call agent login informationand/or may prefill at least a portion of the call agent logininformation (e.g., may prefill the call agent usernames and/or phonenumbers) for logging in to a call agent profile. When the call agentchooses one of the sets of call agent login information (e.g., via usercontrols on the user interface such as a drop-down menu and/or free-formtext field), the LM 120 may retrieve the indication of the correspondingserver stored with the selected call agent login information, and/orestablish a communication between the call agent and the correspondingserver (e.g., Server 3), for example, via the contact center network150.

D. Exemplary Directory Module (DM)

The DM 122 may generate indications of contact center servicecategories, which may be based upon a division and/or geographiclocation within the organization. Moreover, the contact center servicecategories may also be specific to a particular job function within adivision. For example, the contact center service categories mayinclude, “Automobile Insurance—Phoenix,” “Support—El Paso,” “Homeowner'sInsurance Claims—New York,” “Life Insurance Premiums—Atlanta,” etc.

For each of the contact center service categories, the DM 122 may alsoidentify call agents, who may be assigned to the respective contactcenter service category. For example, based upon the call agent logininformation and/or call agent profiles, the DM 122 may identify thedivision, the geographic location, and/or a job function associated witheach call agent, for example based upon the respective call agent'ssecurity groups and/or permissions. In another example, the DM 122 mayobtain personal and/or business information for each call agent from theCTI server device 110, to identify call agents who may be assigned tothe respective contact center service category. In any event, the DM 122may obtain contact information for communicating with the identifiedcall agents, such as a phone number. In some embodiments, call agentsmay be assigned to several respective contact center service categories.

The DM 122 may store the indications of contact center servicecategories with indications of the assigned call agents for each contactcenter service category in the contact center directory database 128, aswell as one or more sets of contact information for communicating witheach of the assigned call agents. In some embodiments, each of thecontact center service categories may be associated with a securitygroup that may include a set of call agents according to each respectivecall agent profile.

In this manner, members of the security group may view and/or access thecontact center service category, as well as indications and/or contactinformation of the call agents assigned to the contact center servicecategory. Moreover, when a call agent is removed from a contact centerservice category, and/or when a set of contact information is added,updated, and/or removed for the call agent, each member of the securitygroup may view and/or access the updated information. Furthermore, whena set of contact information is updated for the call agent in onecontact center service category, such as “Support—El Paso,” the set ofcontact information may be automatically updated for every other contactcenter service category the call agent is assigned to, such as“Support—New York,” and/or “Support—Atlanta.”

E. Exemplary Contact Center Devices

The contact center devices 152-158 may include, by way of example, adesktop computer 152, a mobile device smart-phone 154, a laptop computer156, a tablet computer 158, a portable media player, a wearablecomputing device, smart glasses, smart watches, phablets, other smartdevices, devices configured for wired or wireless RF (Radio Frequency)communication, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc. Ofcourse, any contact center device appropriately configured may interactwith the scalable CTI system 100. Each of the contact center devices152-158 may include and/or may be communicatively coupled to a telephoneset/headset for communicating with one of the customer telephone devices106-109.

The contact center devices 152-158 need not necessarily communicate withthe contact center network 150 via a wired connection. In someinstances, the contact center devices 152-158 may communicate with thecontact center network 150 via wireless signals and, in some instances,may communicate with the contact center network 150 via an interveningwireless or wired device, which may be a wireless router, a wirelessrepeater, a base transceiver station of a mobile telephony provider,etc. The contact center devices 152-158 may include devices which areused by members of a contact center for an organization to access acontact center communication network, such as a local area network(LAN), a virtual private network (VPN), etc.

The contact center devices 152-158 may access the contact center network150 via call agent profiles and may access secure data assets sharedwithin the contact center network 150 based upon permissions associatedwith security groups corresponding to the call agent profiles. Moreover,the contact center devices 152-158 may also include devices which may beused to set and/or change permissions for security groups to accesssecure data assets, and to place and/or remove call agent profiles fromsecurity groups. For example, the contact center devices 152-158 mayinclude a contact center device used by a system administrator.

Each of the contact center devices 152-158 may interact with the CTIserver device 110 to receive web pages and/or server data and maydisplay the web pages and/or server data via a client application and/oran Internet browser (described below). For example, the desktop computer152 may display an application screen of a client application (e.g., acall agent application) and/or a web page to a user, receive an inputfrom the user, and/or interact with the CTI server device 110 dependingon the type of user-specified input. For example, the CTI server device110 may generate an application screen which includes customer callinformation for the customer who initiated the call with the scalableCTI system 100, in response to receiving a customer call keycorresponding to the customer call information from the desktop computer152.

It will be appreciated that although only one CTI server device 110 isdepicted in FIG. 1, multiple CTI servers 110 may be provided for thepurpose of distributing server load, serving different web pages, etc.These multiple CTI servers 110 may include a web server, anentity-specific server (e.g. an Apple® server, etc.), a server that isdisposed in a retail or proprietary network, etc. The multiple CTIservers 110 may also include the IVR module 116, the customer callinformation module 118, the login module 120, and/or the directorymodule 122 as separate servers which may communicate with each other viathe contact center network 150.

The CTI server device 110 may communicate with the contact centerdevices 152-158 via the contact center network 150. The digital contactcenter network 150 may be a proprietary network, a secure publicInternet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), avirtual private network (VPN) and/or some other type of network, such asa public switched telephone network (PTSN) which may include dedicatedaccess lines, plain ordinary telephone lines, satellite links,combinations of these, etc. Where the digital contact center network 150comprises the Internet, data communication may take place over thedigital contact center network 150 via an Internet communicationprotocol. In some embodiments, the digital contact center network 150may be a password protected organizational contact center network whereonly members of the organization having call agent profiles and/orsystem administrators may access the contact center network.

While the scalable CTI system 100 includes four contact center devices152-158, this is merely for ease of illustration only. The scalable CTIsystem 100 may include tens of contact center devices, hundreds ofcontact center devices, thousands of contact center devices or any othersuitable number of contact center devices.

F. Exemplary Customer Telephone Devices

The customer telephone devices 106-109 may include, by way of example, acell phone 106, a home phone 108, a mobile device smart-phone 109, apersonal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, a portable mediaplayer (not shown), a wearable computing device, smart glasses, smartwatches, phablets, other smart devices, or any other suitable devicesconfigured to communicate over a PTSN. Of course, any customer telephonedevice appropriately configured (e.g., any device configured to makephone calls) may interact with the scalable CTI system 100. The customertelephone devices 106-109 need not necessarily communicate with thenetwork 130 via a wired connection. In some instances, the customertelephone devices 106-109 may communicate with the network 130 viawireless signals and, in some instances, may communicate with thenetwork 130 via an intervening wireless or wired device, which may be awireless router, a wireless repeater, a base transceiver station of amobile telephony provider, etc.

Each of the customer telephone devices 106-109 may interact with the CTIserver device 110 to receive input from the customer, such as voiceand/or keypad input, and/or the CTI server device 110 may interact withthe customer telephone devices 106-109 depending on the type ofcustomer-specified input. For example, based upon the customer input,the CTI server device 110 may transfer the call to a call agent withinthe “Homeowner's Insurance Claims—New York,” contact center servicecategory. Moreover, the CTI server device 110 may store the customerinput as customer call information in the contact center customer callinformation database 126.

The CTI server device 110 may communicate with the customer telephonedevices 106-109 via the network 130. The digital network 130 may be aproprietary network, a secure public Internet, a virtual private networkand/or some other type of network, such as a PTSN which may includededicated access lines, plain ordinary telephone lines, satellite links,a cellular network, combinations of these, etc. Where the digitalnetwork 130 comprises the Internet, data communication may take placeover the digital network 130 via an Internet communication protocol.

While the scalable CTI system 100 includes three customer telephonedevices 106-109, this is merely for ease of illustration only. Thescalable CTI system 100 may include hundreds of customer telephonedevices, thousands of customer telephone devices, or any other suitablenumber of customer telephone devices.

II. Exemplary System Hardware

A. Exemplary CTI Server Device

Turning now to FIG. 2A, the CTI server device 110, may include acontroller 224. The controller 224 may include a program memory 226, amicrocontroller or a microprocessor (MP) 228, a random-access memory(RAM) 230, and/or an input/output (I/O) circuit 234, all of which may beinterconnected via an address/data bus 232. The program memory 226 andthe microprocessor 228 may be similar to the memory 140 and processor132 respectively, as described in FIG. 1. In some embodiments, thecontroller 224 may also include, or otherwise be communicativelyconnected to, a database 239 or other data storage mechanism (e.g., oneor more hard disk drives, optical storage drives, solid state storagedevices, etc.). The database 239 may include data such as customer callinformation, call agent login information, contact center directorydata, web page templates and/or web pages, and other data necessary tointeract with users, and/or security administrators through the network130 and/or the contact center network 150. It should be appreciated thatalthough FIG. 2A depicts only one microprocessor 228, the controller 224may include multiple microprocessors 228. Similarly, the memory of thecontroller 224 may include multiple RAMs 230 and/or multiple programmemories 226. Although FIG. 2A depicts the I/O circuit 234 as a singleblock, the I/O circuit 234 may include a number of different types ofI/O circuits. The controller 224 may implement the RAM(s) 230 and/or theprogram memories 226 as semiconductor memories, magnetically readablememories, and/or optically readable memories, for example.

As shown in FIG. 2A, the program memory 226 and/or the RAM 230 may storevarious applications for execution by the microprocessor 228. Forexample, a user-interface application 236 may provide a user interfaceto the CTI server device 110, which user interface may, for example,allow the system administrator to configure, troubleshoot, and/or testvarious aspects of the CTI server's operation, including assigning callagent profiles to security groups for accessing secure data files. Aserver application 238 may operate to receive customer input forexample, from a customer telephone device, identify call agents assignedto a particular contact center service category, combine call agentlogin information from several independent systems, generate customercall keys, etc. The server application 238 may be a single module 238 ora plurality of modules 238A, 238B, 238C (not shown), and 238D (notshown) such as the interactive voice response module 116, the customercall information module 118, the login module 120, and/or the directorymodule 122, respectively.

While the server application 238 is depicted in FIG. 2A as including twomodules, 238A and 238B, the server application 238 may include anynumber of modules accomplishing tasks related to implantation of the CTIserver device 110.

B. Exemplary Contact Center Device

Referring now to FIG. 2B, the laptop computer 156 (or any of the contactcenter devices 152-158) may include a display 240, a communication unit258, a user-input device (not shown), and, like the CTI server device110, a controller 242. Similar to the controller 224, the controller 242may include a program memory 246, a microcontroller or a microprocessor(MP) 248, a random-access memory (RAM) 250, and/or an input/output (I/O)circuit 254, all of which may be interconnected via an address/data bus252. The program memory 246 may include an operating system 260, datastorage 262, a plurality of software applications 264, and/or aplurality of software routines 268. The operating system 260, forexample, may include Microsoft Windows®, OS X®, Linux®, Unix®, etc.

The data storage 262 may include data such as call agent profiles,application data for the plurality of applications 264, routine data forthe plurality of routines 268, and/or other data necessary to interactwith the CTI server device 110 through the digital contact centernetwork 150. In some embodiments, the controller 242 may also include,or otherwise be communicatively connected to, other data storagemechanisms (e.g., one or more hard disk drives, optical storage drives,solid state storage devices, etc.) that reside within the laptopcomputer 156.

The communication unit 258 may communicate with the CTI server device110 via any suitable wireless communication protocol network, such as awireless telephony network (e.g., GSM, CDMA, LTE, etc.), a Wi-Fi network(802.11 standards), a WiMAX network, a Bluetooth network, etc. Theuser-input device (not shown) may include a “soft” keyboard that isdisplayed on the display 240 of the laptop computer 156, an externalhardware keyboard communicating via a wired or a wireless connection(e.g., a Bluetooth keyboard), an external mouse, or any other suitableuser-input device.

As discussed with reference to the controller 224, it should beappreciated that although FIG. 2B depicts only one microprocessor 248,the controller 242 may include multiple microprocessors 248. Similarly,the memory of the controller 242 may include multiple RAMs 250 and/ormultiple program memories 246. Although the FIG. 2B depicts the I/Ocircuit 254 as a single block, the I/O circuit 254 may include a numberof different types of I/O circuits. The controller 242 may implement theRAM(s) 250 and/or the program memories 246 as semiconductor memories,magnetically readable memories, and/or optically readable memories, forexample.

The one or more processors 248 may be adapted and configured to executeany one or more of the plurality of software applications 264 and/or anyone or more of the plurality of software routines 268 residing in theprogram memory 246, in addition to other software applications. One ofthe plurality of applications 264 may be a client application 266 thatmay be implemented as a series of machine-readable instructions forperforming the various tasks associated with receiving information at,displaying information on, and/or transmitting information from thelaptop computer 156.

One of the plurality of applications 264 may be a native applicationand/or web browser 270, such as Apple's Safari®, Google Chrome™,Microsoft Internet Explorer®, and Mozilla Firefox® that may beimplemented as a series of machine-readable instructions for receiving,interpreting, and/or displaying web page information from the CTI serverdevice 110 while also receiving inputs from the call agent.

Another application of the plurality of applications may include anembedded web browser 276 that may be implemented as a series ofmachine-readable instructions for receiving, interpreting, and/ordisplaying web page information from the CTI server device 110.

One of the plurality of routines may include a call agent login routine272 which obtains call agent login information from the call agent,transmits the login information to the CTI server device 110, and/ordisplays secure data files according to the call agent profileassociated with the login information on the display 240. Anotherroutine in the plurality of routines may include a call transfer routine274 that receives a phone number for routing the call to another callagent and/or a customer call key for retrieving customer callinformation. The call transfer routine 274 may route the call to theother call agent via the received phone number and/or may transmit thecustomer call key to the other call agent.

Preferably, a call agent may launch the client application 266 from acontact center device, such as one of the contact center devices152-158, to communicate with the CTI server device 110 to implement thescalable CTI system 100. Additionally, the call agent may also launch orinstantiate any other suitable user interface application (e.g., thenative application or web browser 270, or any other one of the pluralityof software applications 264) to access the CTI server device 110 torealize the scalable CTI system 100.

III. Exemplary Contact Center Login Environment

A. Exemplary Flow Diagram for a Contact Center Login Database

FIG. 3A depicts a flow diagram representing an exemplary method 300 forgenerating and/or accessing a contact center login database. The method300 may be executed on the CTI server device 110. In some embodiments,the method 300 may be implemented in a set of instructions stored on anon-transitory computer-readable memory and executable on one or moreprocessors of the CTI server device 110. For example, the method 300 maybe performed by the login module 120 of FIG. 1.

At block 302, call agent login information may be received from severalindependent systems within the contact center network 150 and/orcorresponding to several call agents. As described above, the scalableCTI system 100 may be associated with a large organization that includesseveral divisions. Each division may include a contact centersub-network, which may include several call agents and/or associatedcall agent login information for the call agents to login to the contactcenter sub-network and access secure data files within the particularsub-network. The contact center sub-network for a division may alsoinclude one or several servers, where each server stores call agentprofiles corresponding to the call agent login information. A call agentmay access her call agent profile by logging in to a particular serverwithin a contact center sub-network using her call agent logininformation. In some embodiments, a division may not have direct accessto another division within the organization.

Call agent login information along with a reference to an indication ofa particular server within the contact center sub-network which storesthe corresponding call agent profiles, may be received at the LM 120from each division within the contact center network 150.

At block 304, the LM 120 may combine the call agent login informationand references to corresponding servers from each division within thecontact center network 150. For example, the LM 120 may combine the callagent login information through a series of database operations, such astable relations and/or joins.

The combined sets of call agent login information and references tocorresponding servers may be stored in a database, such as the contactcenter login database 124 (block 306). For example, the contact centerlogin database 124 may store a username, password, and/or phone numberfor call agent Jen Boe and a reference to Server 2, which Jen Boe maycommunicate with to access her call agent profile.

In some embodiments, when a call agent is associated with multipledivisions within the organization, the LM 120 may determine thatmultiple instances of call agent login information correspond to thesame call agent. The LM 120 may associate each set of call agent logininformation that corresponds to the same call agent, and in somescenarios, when the call agent logs in to the scalable CTI system 100,the call agent may be provided with a user interface that may allow thecall agent to choose one of the sets of call agent login information(e.g., via a contact center login selection screen, such as the contactlogin selections screen 340 as shown in FIG. 3C below), and/or prefillat least a portion of the call agent login information (e.g., mayprefill the call agent usernames and/or phone numbers) for logging in toa call agent profile. For example, the call agent may have several callagent profiles, each accessible by servers associated with differentindependent computing systems. More specifically, the contact centerlogin database 124 may store (a) a first username, password, and/orphone number for call agent Jen Boe and a reference to Server 2associated with a banking division, and/or the contact center logindatabase 124 may store (b) a second username, password, and/or phonenumber for Jen Boe and a reference to Server 9 associated with aninsurance claims division. The call agent may also select a default callagent profile corresponding to default call agent login informationand/or a default server, which may be automatically selected each timethe call agent logs in.

At block 308, the LM 120 may receive call agent login information from acall agent. For example, the call agent may enter a username, password,and/or phone number on the call agent's contact center device (e.g., viaa contact center login display, such as the contact center login display320 as shown in FIG. 3B below), which may be received at the LM 120 viathe contact center network 150. The LM 120 may then compare the receivedcall agent login information to the sets of call agent login informationstored in the contact center login database 124 to authenticate thereceived call agent login information (block 310).

If there is no match, the call agent may be prompted to reenter the callagent login information (block 308). If there is a match, the LM 120 mayretrieve the indication of the corresponding server stored with thematching login information, and/or establish a communication between thecall agent and the corresponding server (e.g., Server 6), for example,via the contact center network 150. The call agent may then access hercall agent profile via the corresponding server.

The corresponding server may provide access to secure data files withinthe scalable CTI system 100 to the call agent's contact center device,according to the call agent profile associated with the call agent logininformation (block 314). Each set of call agent login information may beassociated with a call agent profile that may include permissions thatthe call agent has or needs to access certain secure data files withinthe contact center network 150, or a particular contact centersub-network.

For example, a call agent profile may belong to security groups withinthe contact center network, where each security group has permission toaccess certain secure data files. More specifically, a call agent whoworks in life insurance claims in Houston may be placed in a securitygroup such that the call agent may have access to customer callinformation for a customer who called to file a life insurance claim inHouston. In another example, a call agent who receives calls fromMilwaukee customers regarding liability coverage for automobileinsurance may be placed in a security group such that the call agent mayhave access to contact information for call agents who receive callsfrom Milwaukee customers regarding comprehensive coverage for automobileinsurance.

When the call agent logs in to a particular call agent login profile,the CTI server device 110 may transmit application screens and/orwebpages, which may be displayed by the client application 266 as shownin FIG. 2B, and/or which may include the secure data files that the callagent has or possesses permission to access. In other embodiments, whenthe call agent logs in to a particular call agent login profile, theserver stored with the matching login information may transmitapplication screens and/or webpages, which may be displayed by theclient application 266 as shown in FIG. 2B, and/or which may include thesecure data files that the call agent has or possesses permission toaccess. The method may include additional, fewer, or alternativeactions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

B. Exemplary Contact Center Login Display

FIG. 3B depicts an exemplary contact center login display 320, which maybe generated by the CTI server device 110 and displayed by the clientapplication 266 of one of the contact center devices 152-158. As will beappreciated by those of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s), theexemplary display shown in FIG. 3B is for illustrative purposes, and theassociated functionality may be implemented using any suitable formatand/or design for facilitating corresponding described functionalitieswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The contact center login display 320 may include a user control 322 forentering call agent login information, such as a free-form text field,drop-down menu, etc. The call agent login information entered on thecontact center login display 320 may be a phone number, username, and/orpassword. In some embodiments, the call agent login information may bepre-filled for the call agent on the call agent's contact center device.

The call agent may also select the user control “Set Default PG” 324,for example, by clicking on the corresponding check box. By clicking onthe corresponding check box, the call agent may designate the enteredcall agent login information as default call agent login information inthe event that the call agent has multiple call agent profilescorresponding to multiple sets of call agent login information. When thecall agent attempts to login to the CTI system in the future, thedefault call agent login information may be pre-filled on the callagent's contact center device, and/or the contact center device mayautomatically login using the default call agent login information.

In any event, once the call agent login information is entered, the callagent may select an “OK” button 326 to login to her call agent profile.As described above, the LM 120 may compare the received call agent logininformation entered via the user control 322, to the sets of call agentlogin information stored in the contact center login database 124. Ifthere is a match, the LM 120 may retrieve the indication of thecorresponding server stored with the matching login information, and/orestablish a communication between the call agent and the correspondingserver, for example, via the contact center network 150. The call agentmay then access her call agent profile via the corresponding server.

C. Exemplary Contact Center Login Selection Screen

If a call agent has previously entered multiple sets of call agent logininformation, the CTI server device 110 may provide a contact centerlogin selection screen for the call agent to select from the multiplesets of call agent login information. FIG. 3C depicts an exemplarycontact center login selection screen 340, which may be generated by theCTI server device 110 and displayed by the client application 266 of oneof the contact center devices 152-158. As will be appreciated by thoseof ordinary skill in the relevant art(s), the exemplary display shown inFIG. 3C is for illustrative purposes, and the associated functionalitymay be implemented using any suitable format and/or design forfacilitating corresponding described functionalities without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The contact center login selection screen 340 may include a user control342, such as a drop-down menu, for selecting call agent logininformation from multiple sets of call agent login information for auser. For example, if a call agent has previously logged into the CTIsystem using a first phone number “555-555-5511” corresponding to afirst call agent profile, using a second phone number “555-555-5522”corresponding to a second call agent profile, and using a third phonenumber “555-555-5533” corresponding to a third call agent profile, eachof the three phone numbers may be displayed via the drop-down menu whenthe call agent selects the user control 342.

The call agent may then select one of the sets of call agent logininformation displayed on the drop-down menu, and/or may select an “OK”button 344 to login to the call agent profile corresponding to theselected set of login information. As described above, the LM 120 maycompare the selected call agent login information via the user control342, to the sets of call agent login information stored in the contactcenter login database 124. If there is a match, the LM 120 may retrievethe indication of the corresponding server stored with the matchinglogin information, and/or establish a communication between the callagent and the corresponding server, for example, via the contact centernetwork 150. The call agent may then access the corresponding call agentprofile via the corresponding server.

IV. Exemplary Contact Center Environment

A. Exemplary Contact Center Directory Display

FIG. 4A depicts an exemplary contact center directory display 400, whichmay be generated by the CTI server device 110 and displayed by theclient application 266 of one of the contact center devices 152-158. Aswill be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s),the exemplary display shown in FIG. 4A is for illustrative purposes, andthe associated functionality may be implemented using any suitableformat and/or design for facilitating corresponding describedfunctionalities without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent disclosure.

The contact center directory display 400 may include indications ofcontact center service categories 410, and for each contact centerservice category, sets of contact information 420 including a phonenumber 422 and/or a name of the call agent 424 corresponding to thephone number. Moreover, the contact center directory display 400 mayinclude a user control for transferring a call to the selected callagent, for example by touch-selecting and/or double clicking on the“Transfer” button 430. The contact center directory display 400 may alsoinclude a user control for dialing and/or establishing a conference callbetween the selected call agent, the user, and the customer, for exampleby touch-selecting and/or double clicking on the “Dial/Conference”button 432. A “Search” field 402 may also be displayed for entering textto search for a particular contact center service category, and/or aparticular set of contact information, such as a call agent name orphone number.

When the user (the call agent) selects one of the contact center servicecategories from the indications of contact center service categories410, the selected contact center service category may be highlighted onthe contact center directory display 400, such as the “Fire ClaimsCentral” contact center service category 412. Sets of contactinformation for each call agent assigned to the selected contact centerservice category may be displayed, such as “62233—John Doe,” “32799—JaneSmith,” etc. When the call agent selects another contact center servicecategory, such as “Agency,” sets of contact information for call agentsassigned to “Agency” may be displayed as the sets of contact information420.

In some embodiments, the user (the call agent) may view and/or accesscontact center service categories on the contact center directorydisplay 400 based upon the security groups to which the user belongs.For example, one security group may have permission to access allcontact center service categories related to Bloomington, such as“Support—Bloomington,” “Auto Power Call—Bloomington,” “Fire PowerCall—Bloomington,” etc. All call agents who need to communicate with theBloomington branch may belong to such a security group, and thereforemay view and/or access these contact center service categories on thecontact center directory display 400. On the other hand, a call agentwho is not a member of this security group, and is not a member of anysecurity group which has or possesses permission to access“Support—Bloomington,” may not view and/or access the“Support—Bloomington” contact service category on the contact centerdirectory display 400.

Also, in some embodiments, a system administrator may view each of thecontact center service categories and corresponding sets of contactinformation for the contact center service categories on a systemadministrator directory display (e.g., such as the system administratordirectory category displays 434, 440, 460, and 480 as shown in FIGS.4B-E, respectively, below), which may be generated by the CTI serverdevice 110 and displayed by the client application 266 of the systemadministrator's contact center device. The system administrator may beable to edit each of the contact center service categories andcorresponding sets of contact information for the contact center servicecategories via one or more user controls on the system administratordirectory display, such as an add category button, a delete categorybutton, an assign phone number button, an add phone number button, adelete phone number button, etc.

Using the user controls, the system administrator may add a set ofcontact information to the contact center directory database 128; removea set of contact information from the contact center directory database128; assign a set of contact information to a contact center servicecategory in the contact center directory database 128, such that the setof contact information may be displayed when a call agent selects theassigned contact center service category; and/or remove an associationbetween a set of contact information and a contact center servicecategory in the contact center directory database 128, such that the setof contact information may not be displayed when a call agent selectsthe previously assigned contact center service category. The systemadministrator may also be able to make any other suitable edits to thecontact center service categories and corresponding sets of contactinformation in any suitable manner.

When a set of contact information is updated, removed, and/or added to aparticular contact center service category by the system administrator,all call agents with permission to access the particular contact centerservice category may view the change on their respective displays. Forexample, if a system administrator removes the “Richard Roe” entry fromthe “Fire Claims Central” contact center service category 412, all callagents with permission to access “Fire Claims Central” may view theupdated sets of contact information for “Fire Claims Central” withoutcontact information for Richard Roe.

When the system administrator removes the “Richard Roe” entry from the“Fire Claims Central” contact center service category 412, theassociation between “Richard Roe” and the “Fire Claims Central” contactcenter service category may be removed from the contact center directorydatabase 128, as shown in FIG. 1. Additionally, the system administratormay remove the “Richard Roe” entry from all contact center servicecategories which Richard Roe is assigned, by removing the “Richard Roe”entry from the contact center directory database 128. For example, afterselecting a delete button on the system administrator display, thesystem administrator may be presented with the option to either removean association between the “Richard Roe” entry and a contact centerservice category or to delete the “Richard Roe” entry from the contactcenter directory database 128. For example, if Richard Roe leaves theorganization, rather than removing the association between the “RichardRoe” entry and a particular contact center service category, the systemadministrator may delete the “Richard Roe” entry from the contact centerdirectory database 128 entirely.

In another example, the system administrator may update the set ofcontact information for Richard Roe (e.g., change his phone number) fora particular contact center service category in which Richard Roe isassigned, and the updated set of contact information may be stored inthe contact center directory database 128. As a result, the updated setof contact information for Richard Roe may automatically be displayedfor each contact center service category in which Richard Roe isassigned. The CTI server device 110 may generate a new contact centerdirectory display based upon the updated database information. The newcontact center directory display may be displayed by the clientapplication 266 of each respective call agent's contact center device.

In yet another example, the system administrator may add a set ofcontact information (e.g., by selecting an add button and manuallyentering in the set of contact information). When the systemadministrator adds a set of contact information, she may also select oneor several contact center service categories which may be assigned tothe set of contact information. The CTI server device 110 may thenreceive the added set of contact information and assigned contact centerservice categories. As a result, the CTI server device 110 may store theadded set of contact information in the contact center directorydatabase 128. The CTI server device 110 may also store references to theadded set of contact information for each of the assigned contact centerservice categories.

While the contact center directory display 400 includes three sets ofcontact information for the “Fire Claims Central” contact center servicecategory, this is merely for ease of illustration only. The contactcenter directory display 400 may include any suitable number of contactcenter service categories, and sets of contact information for eachcontact center service category.

B. Exemplary System Administrator Directory Display for Editing ContactCenter Service Categories

FIG. 4B depicts a first exemplary system administrator directory display434, which may be generated by the CTI server device 110 and displayedby the client application 266 of one of the contact center devices152-158 for a system administrator. As will be appreciated by those ofordinary skill in the relevant art(s), the exemplary display shown inFIG. 4B is for illustrative purposes, and the associated functionalitymay be implemented using any suitable format and/or design forfacilitating corresponding described functionalities without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The first system administrator directory display 434 may include an “AddCategory” button 436, and/or a “Delete Category” button 438. If thesystem administrator selects the “Delete Category” button 438, the CTIserver device 110 may remove the contact center service category, suchas “Auto Claims Central” 439, from the contact center directory database128, and call agents who previously had permission to access the contactcenter service category may no longer view and/or access the contactcenter service category once it is removed.

If a system administrator selects the “Add Category” button 436, thesystem administrator may be prompted to enter a contact center servicecategory name, for example, via a free-form text field, such as “AutoClaims Central” 439. As mentioned above, CTI server device 110 may storethe added category in the contact center directory database 128, and thesystem administrator may be provided with a display for assigning setsof contact information to the added category, as shown in FIG. 4C.

C. Exemplary System Administrator Directory Display for AssigningContact Information

FIG. 4C depicts a second exemplary system administrator directorydisplay 440, which may be generated by the CTI server device 110 anddisplayed by the client application 266 of one of the contact centerdevices 152-158 for a system administration. As will be appreciated bythose of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s), the exemplary displayshown in FIG. 4C is for illustrative purposes, and the associatedfunctionality may be implemented using any suitable format and/or designfor facilitating corresponding described functionalities withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The second system administrator directory display 440 may include anindication of a contact center service category “Bob's Auto Shop” 442,and/or one or more user controls 444-448, such as check boxes, forassigning sets of contact information to the contact center servicecategory. For example, by selecting the checkbox 444, the set of contactinformation including phone number “12345” and call agent “Alex Smith”may be assigned to “Bob's Auto Shop” 442. Moreover, by selecting thecheckbox 446, the set of contact information including phone number“54321” and call agent “Bill Jacobs” may also be assigned to “Bob's AutoShop” 442. Furthermore, by selecting the checkbox 448, the set ofcontact information including phone number “99999” and call agent “JerryThomas” may be assigned to “Bob's Auto Shop” 442.

As mentioned above, when a set of contact information is assigned to acontact center service category, the CTI server device 110 may store areference to the set of contact information with the contact centerservice category in the contact center directory database 128. In theexample above, references to: the set of contact information includingphone number “12345” and call agent “Alex Smith,” the set of contactinformation including phone number “54321” and call agent “Bill Jacobs,”and/or the set of contact information including phone number “99999” andcall agent “Jerry Thomas” may be stored with “Bob's Auto Shop” in thecontact center directory database 128.

If the system administrator does not select the user controlcorresponding to a set of contact information on the second systemadministrator directory display 440, the set of contact information maynot be assigned to the contact center service category.

While the second system administrator directory display 440 includesseven sets of contact information, this is merely for ease ofillustration only. The second system administrator directory display 440may include any suitable number of sets of contact information which asystem administrator may assign to a particular contact center servicecategory. In addition to assigning a set of contact information to acontact center service category, an association between a set of contactinformation and a contact center service category may be removed, a setof contact information may be deleted from the contact center directorydatabase 128, entirely, and/or a set of contact information may be addedto the contact center directory database 128 and/or assigned to contactcenter service categories. FIG. 4D depicts a third system administratordirectory display for removing an association between a set of contactinformation and a contact center service category, deleting a set ofcontact information, and/or assigning a set of contact information to acontact center service category.

D. Exemplary System Administrator Directory Display for Removing ContactInformation

FIG. 4D depicts a third exemplary system administrator directory display460, which may be generated by the CTI server device 110 and displayedby the client application 266 of one of the contact center devices152-158 for a system administrator. As will be appreciated by those ofordinary skill in the relevant art(s), the exemplary display shown inFIG. 4D is for illustrative purposes, and the associated functionalitymay be implemented using any suitable format and/or design forfacilitating corresponding described functionalities without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The third system administrator directory display 460 may include an “AddPhone Number” button 462, and/or a “Delete Phone Number” button 464.Additionally, for a selected set of contact information, such as“15555551234—SDMU” 466, the third system administrator directory display460 may include a “Remove” button 468 to remove an association betweenthe set of contact information and a contact center service category,such as “Hotlines CCS Auto.” Moreover, the third system administratordirectory display 460 may include an “Add” button 470 to assign the setof contact information to a contact center service category such as“Hotlines CCSD.”

If the system administrator selects the “Delete Phone Number” button464, the CTI server device 110 may delete the set of contact informationfrom the contact center directory database 128. Each contact centerservice category assigned to the deleted set of contact information, mayno longer display the set of contact information on the contact centerdirectory display 400 as shown in FIG. 4A.

If the system administrator selects the “Remove” button 468, the CTIserver device 110 may remove the association between the set of contactinformation 466 and the contact center service category “Hotlines CCSAuto” in the contact center directory database 128, by removing thereference to the set of contact information 466 stored with the“Hotlines CCS Auto” contact center service category in the contactcenter directory database 128, as described above. The contact centerdirectory display 400 may no longer display the set of contactinformation 466 when a call agent selects the “Hotlines CCS Auto”category.

Furthermore, if the system administrator selects the “Add” button 470,the CTI server device 110 may assign the set of contact information 466to the contact center service category “Hotlines CCSD” in the contactcenter directory database 128, by including a reference to the set ofcontact information 466 and/or storing the reference with the “HotlinesCCD” contact center service category in the contact center directorydatabase 128, as described above. The contact center directory display400 may display the set of contact information 466 when a call agentselects the “Hotlines CCSD” category.

While the third system administrator directory display 460 includes onecontact center service category for removing an association with the setof contact information, and one contact center service category forassigning the set of contact information, this is merely for ease ofillustration only. The third system administrator directory display 460may include any suitable number of contact center service categories foradding and/or removing an association with the set of contactinformation.

Moreover, if the system administrator selects the “Add Phone Number”button 462, the CTI server device 110 may provide the fourth systemadministrator directory display 480 as shown in FIG. 4E to the systemadministrator's contact center device.

E. Exemplary System Administrator Directory Display for Adding ContactInformation

FIG. 4E depicts a fourth exemplary system administrator directorydisplay 480, which may be generated by the CTI server device 110 anddisplayed by the client application 266 of one of the contact centerdevices 152-158 for a system administrator. As will be appreciated bythose of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s), the exemplary displayshown in FIG. 4E is for illustrative purposes, and the associatedfunctionality may be implemented using any suitable format and/or designfor facilitating corresponding described functionalities withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

As mentioned above, if the system administrator selects the “Add PhoneNumber” button 462, the CTI server device 110 may provide the fourthsystem administrator directory display 480 for the system administratorto add a set of contact information to the contact center directorydatabase 128, and/or to assign the added set of contact information toone or several contact center service categories. The fourth systemadministrator directory display 480 may include a user control 482, suchas a free-form text field for entering a phone number (e.g.,“15553467821”). A user control 484 may also be included for adding adescription to the phone number, such as a name of the call agentcorresponding to the phone number.

Moreover, the fourth system administrator directory display 480 mayinclude one or several user controls for assigning contact centerservice categories to the added set of contact information. For example,the user controls may be a free-form text field(s) for entering theassigned contact center service categories, a drop-down menu(s) forselecting contact center service categories to assign to the added setof contact information, and/or several checkboxes where selecting acheckbox assigns the corresponding contact center service category tothe added set of contact information. A “Search” field 486 may also bedisplayed for entering text to search for a particular contact centerservice category.

The fourth system administrator directory display 480 may include acheckbox 488 for assigning a “Voicemail” category to the added set ofcontact information, a checkbox 490 for assigning an “Agency” categoryto the added set of contact information, a checkbox 492 for assigning a“Bob's Auto Shop” category to the added set of contact information, etc.By checking the checkbox 492 for assigning a “Bob's Auto Shop” categoryto the added set of contact information and/or selecting the “Save”button 494 (e.g., by single or double clicking and/or touch-selectingthe “Save” button 494), the set of contact information including thephone number 482 and/or description 484 may be added to the contactcenter directory database 128 by the CTI server device 110. Moreover,the CTI server device 110 may store a reference to the added set ofcontact information with the “Bob's Auto Shop” contact center servicecategory in the contact center directory database 128. If a checkbox isnot selected when the system administrator single or double clicksand/or touch-selects the “Save” button 494, then the contact centerservice category corresponding the checkbox may not be assigned to theadded set of contact information.

While the fourth system administrator directory display 480 includesseven contact center service categories for assigning to the added setof contact information, this is merely for ease of illustration only.The fourth system administrator directory display 480 may include anysuitable number of contact center service categories for assigning tothe set of contact information.

V. Exemplary Flow Diagram for a Contact Center Directory Database

FIG. 5 depicts a flow diagram representing an exemplary method 500 forgenerating and/or accessing a contact center directory database. Themethod 500 may be executed on the CTI server device 110. In someembodiments, the method 500 may be implemented in a set of instructionsstored on a non-transitory computer-readable memory and executable onone or more processors of the CTI server device 110. For example, themethod 500 may be performed by the directory module 122 of FIG. 1.

At block 502, the DM 122 may generate indications of contact centerservice categories, which may be based upon a division and/or geographiclocation within the organization. For example, contact center servicecategories may include, “Support—Bloomington,” “Management—Quote &Bind—Bloomington,” “Agency,” “Auto Power Call—Bloomington,” “Fire PowerCall—Bloomington,” “Fire Power Call—El Paso & Jacksonville,” etc.

At block 504, the DM 122 may generate sets of contact information forcontacting call agents assigned to each contact center service category.For example, in the contact center directory display 400 as shown inFIG. 4A, the DM 122 may generate “62233—John Doe,” “32799—Jane Smith,”and/or “64775—Richard Roe,” and assign each set of contact informationto the “Fire Claims Central” contact center service category. Callagents assigned to a particular contact center service category may bedetermined by identifying a division, geographic location, and/or a jobfunction associated with each call agent, for example based upon therespective call agent's call agent profile, security groups, and/orpermissions. In another example, the DM 122 may obtain personal and/orbusiness information for each call agent from the CTI server device 110,to identify call agents who may be assigned to the respective contactcenter service category.

The contact center service categories and respective sets of contactinformation for each contact center service category may be stored in adatabase, such as the contact center directory database 128 as shown inFIG. 1 (block 506). For example, an indication of each contact centerservice category may be stored in the contact center directory database128 with references to each set of contact information assigned to therespective contact center service category. The sets of contactinformation may also be stored in the contact center directory database128.

In this manner, when a set of contact information is removed and/orupdated, for example, by a system administrator, the change may bereflected in every contact center service category assigned to the setof contact information, because each contact center service category isstored with a reference to the updated/removed set of contactinformation. If a system administrator removes the set of contactinformation from one particular contact center service category, thereference to the set of contact information for the particular contactcenter service category may be removed from the contact center directorydatabase 128, but the set of contact information may remain unchanged.Moreover, if the system administrator adds a set of contact information,a single instance of the added set of contact information may be storedin the contact center directory database 128. References to the addedset of contact information may be stored with each contact centerservice category that the system administrator assigns to the added setof contact information.

In addition to storing contact center service categories and respectivesets of contact information for each contact center service category,one or several security groups may be generated, where each securitygroup may have permission to access contact center service categories(block 508). For example, security group A may have permission to access“Support—Bloomington,” “Management—Quote & Bind—Bloomington,” and/or“Agency,” as well as the sets of contact information assigned to eachrespective contact service category. Security group B may havepermission to access “Auto Power Call—Bloomington,” “Fire PowerCall—Bloomington,” and/or “Fire Power Call—El Paso & Jacksonville,” aswell as the sets of contact information assigned to each respectivecontact service category.

Call agents may then be assigned to security groups based upon theirrespective job functions and/or geographic locations (block 510), forexample according to their respective call agent profiles. For example,call agents who respond to inquiries regarding “Fire Power Call—LasVegas,” may be assigned to security group B so that they may transfercalls to call agents assigned to “Fire Power Call—Bloomington,” and/or“Fire Power Call—El Paso & Jacksonville,” when they receive callsregarding these geographic locations. In some embodiments, a systemadministrator may assign call agents to the various security groups.

In any event, at block 512, the CTI server device 110 and/or the DM 122may cause each of the contact center service categories and assignedsets of contact information which a particular call agent has orpossesses permission to access to be displayed on a user interface ofthe call agent's contact center device. Additionally, user controls fortransferring, dialing, and/or conferencing call agents assigned to eachof the contact center service categories may be displayed on the userinterface of the call agent's contact center device (block 514). Forexample, the contact center directory display 400 may be displayed bythe client application 266 of the call agent's contact center device.The method may include additional, fewer, or alternative actions,including those discussed elsewhere herein.

VI. Exemplary Contact Center Customer Call Information Environment

A. Exemplary Flow Diagram for Contact Center Customer Call InformationDatabase

FIG. 6A depicts a flow diagram representing an exemplary method 600 forgenerating and/or accessing a contact center customer call informationdatabase. The method 600 may be executed on the CTI server device 110.In some embodiments, the method 600 may be implemented in a set ofinstructions stored on a non-transitory computer-readable memory andexecutable on one or more processors of the CTI server device 110. Forexample, the method 600 may be performed by the IVR 116 and/or thecustomer call information module 118 of FIG. 1.

At block 602, an incoming call may be received at the CTI server device110 from a customer via the network 130. In response to the incomingcall, the IVR module 116 may request customer call information (block604), through a series of questions which the customer may answer bydialing numbers on the keypad of the customer telephone device that wasused to make the call, and/or by providing voice responses. In someembodiments, the IVR module 116 may provide additional requests basedupon the customer's response. For example, the IVR module 116 may state,“If you are calling to file an insurance claim, press ‘1’.” If thecustomer presses ‘1’ on the customer telephone device, the IVR module116 may then state “Please enter your policy number using your keypad.”

In other embodiments, a call agent may communicate with the customerthrough a series of questions and/or receive voice responses for thecustomer. The call agent may then provide additional requests based uponthe customer's responses and/or record the customer's responses at thecall agent's contact center device.

At block 606, the CCIM 118 may obtain the customer call information fromthe IVR module 116 and/or the call agent. The customer call informationmay include identification information for the customer, such as thecustomer's name, address, phone number, etc. The customer callinformation may also include the subject of the customer's inquiry, suchas filing a claim, purchasing an insurance policy, policy coverageinformation, receiving a quote, billing questions, etc. Moreover, thecustomer call information may include the type of insurance policy ownedby the customer, such as life insurance or homeowner's insurance, apolicy number for the insurance policy, a group number for the insurancepolicy, etc.

In some embodiments, at least some of the customer call information maybe determined by the CCIM 118. For example, the customer's phone numbermay be obtained automatically when the customer makes the call without arequest for this information from the IVR module 116. Moreover, the CCIM118 may access a customer database that may include personal informationfor customers who have previously purchased insurance policies with theinsurance provider. For example, the customer database may store acustomer name, phone number, address, and/or policy numbers for each ofthe insurance policies purchased by each customer. As mentioned above,the CCIM 118 may automatically obtain the customer's phone number whenthe customer calls the scalable CTI system 100, and may compare thephone number to phone numbers within the customer database. If there isa match, the CCIM 118 may obtain personal information for the customerwithout a request for this information from the IVR module 116.

In any event, the customer call information may be stored in a database,such as the contact center customer call information database 126 (block608). Additionally, the CCIM 118 may generate a customer call key (block610), which may be associated with the customer call information and/orstored in the contact center customer call information database 126 as areference to the customer call information (block 612). For example, thecustomer call key may be a set of alphanumeric and/or numeric characters(e.g., an eight digit alphanumeric character string), and/or may bestored in the contact center customer call information database 126,such that when the customer call key is searched in the database, theassociated customer call information may be retrieved.

At block 614, the CCIM 118 may transfer the incoming call to a callagent, and may also transfer the customer call key to the call agentwithout transferring the customer call information. In some embodiments,the CCIM 118 may select a call agent for transferring the call basedupon the call agent's profile. For example, if the customer indicatesthat she would like to discuss an insurance claim, the CCIM 118 maytransfer the call to a call agent having a call agent profile associatedwith insurance claims (e.g., a call agent profile which belongs tosecurity groups that have permission to access insurance claims data).When the call is transferred to the call agent, a call agent display maybe displayed on a user interface of the call agent's contact centerdevice. The call agent display may be the call agent display 620 asdescribed in more detail below with reference to FIG. 6B, may bedisplayed by the client application 266 of the call agent's contactcenter device, and/or may include the customer call key. When the callagent receives the customer call key, the call agent and/orsystem/server may retrieve the customer call information for theincoming call by searching for the customer call key in the contactcenter customer call information database 126 and/or otherwise by usingthe customer call key.

Additionally, the CTI server device 110 and/or the CCIM 118 may causeindications of other call agents and/or their current availabilitystatuses to be displayed on a user interface of the call agent's contactcenter device (block 616). For example, the presence display 700 may bedisplayed by the client application 266 of the call agent's contactcenter device, as described in more detail below with reference to FIG.7.

The CTI server device 110 may receive the availability status of eachcall agent within the contact center network 150 from each of thecontact center devices 152-158, and/or display the availability statusesof the other call agents so that the call agent may determine whichother call agents are available for transferring the call and/or for aconference call. For example, if the call agent retrieves contactinformation for Jane Smith from the contact center directory display 400of FIG. 4A, she may determine whether Jane Smith is available based uponthe current availability status for Jane Smith. If Jane Smith isavailable, the call agent may transfer the call and/or transmit the callkey to Jane Smith, so that she may retrieve customer call informationfor the incoming call. The method may include additional, fewer, oralternative actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

B. Exemplary Call Agent Display

FIG. 6B depicts an exemplary call agent display 620, which may begenerated by the CTI server device 110 and displayed by the clientapplication 266 of one of the contact center devices 152-158. As will beappreciated by those of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s), theexemplary display shown in FIG. 6B is for illustrative purposes, and theassociated functionality may be implemented using any suitable formatand/or design for facilitating corresponding described functionalitieswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The call agent display 620 may include a “Dial” button 622 for making anoutgoing call to another call agent, and/or an “Answer” button 624 forreceiving an incoming call from a customer and/or receiving atransferred call from another call agent and/or the CTI system. The callagent display 620 may also include a “Transfer” button 626 fortransferring a customer call to another call agent and/or a “Directory”button 628 for displaying a contact center directory such as the contactcenter directory display 400 as shown in FIG. 4A. The call agent maythen dial, conference, and/or transfer the customer call to another callagent using the sets of contact information presented in the contactcenter directory display 400.

In addition to the various buttons, the call agent display 620 may alsoinclude information regarding the customer call such as anidentification number assigned by the CTI system for the call, a currentstatus of the call such as “Active,” “Held,” etc., the phone number ofthe customer 632, “15556731936,” and/or a customer call key 634associated with customer call information for the customer call. In someembodiments, the call agent and/or the CTI server device 110 mayretrieve the customer call information by searching for the customercall key in the contact center customer call information database 126.The CTI server device 110 may locate the customer call informationreferenced by the customer call key in the contact center customer callinformation database 126 and/or display the customer call information onthe call agent's contact center device.

In response to receiving an incoming call, for example from a customerand/or another call agent, the call agent may activate the “Answer”button 624, for example by touch-selecting and/or single or doubleclicking on the “Answer” button 624 to answer the incoming call. Whenthe call agent activates the “Dial” button 622, for example bytouch-selecting and/or single or double clicking on the “Dial” button622, a keypad may be displayed on the call agent's contact center devicefor dialing a phone number. In this manner, the call agent may place anoutgoing phone call and/or initiate a conference call via the call agentdisplay 620. Similarly, when the call agent activates the “Transfer”button 626, for example by touch-selecting and/or single or doubleclicking on the “Transfer” button 626, a keypad may be displayed on thecall agent's contact center device for dialing a phone number. In thismanner, the call agent may transfer a phone call to the dialed phonenumber via the call agent display 620.

Additionally and/or alternatively, the call agent may transfer the phonecall and/or establish a conference call via the “Directory” button 628.When the call agent activates the “Directory” button 628, for example bytouch-selecting and/or single or double clicking on the “Directory”button 628, a display such as the contact center directory display 400as shown in FIG. 4A may be presented on the call agent's contact centerdevice. As described above with reference to FIG. 4A, the contact centerdirectory display 400 may include indications of contact center servicecategories, and for each contact center service category, sets ofcontact information including a phone number and/or a name of the callagent corresponding to the phone number. Moreover, the contact centerdirectory display 400 may include a user control for transferring a callto the selected call agent, for example by touch-selecting and/or doubleclicking on the “Transfer” button. The contact center directory display400 may also include a user control for dialing and/or establishing aconference call between the selected call agent, the call agent, and thecustomer, for example by touch-selecting and/or double clicking on the“Dial/Conference” button.

While the call agent display 620 includes twelve buttons, this is merelyfor ease of illustration only. The call agent display 620 may includeadditional and/or alternative buttons for receiving, dialing,transferring, conferencing a customer call and/or for communicating withthe customer.

VII. Exemplary Presence Display

FIG. 7 depicts an exemplary presence display 700 which may be generatedby the CTI server device 110 and displayed by the client application 266of one of the contact center devices 152-158. As will be appreciated bythose of ordinary skill in the relevant art(s), the exemplary displayshown in FIG. 7 is for illustrative purposes, and the associatedfunctionality may be implemented using any suitable format and/or designfor facilitating corresponding described functionalities withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure.

The presence display 700 may include the name of the call agent viewingthe presence display 700 (the viewing call agent) “Bob White” 702, andthe names of other call agents in the contact center network 150, suchas “John Doe” 706 a, “Jane Smith” 708 a, “Tina Tate” 710 a, “Tom Cobb”712 a, and “Richard Roe” 714 a. The presence display may also includeindications of an availability status for each of the other call agents.For example, John Doe is “Available” 706 b, Tom Cobb is “In a meeting”712 b, and Richard Roe is “Offline” 714 b.

Additionally, the presence display 700 may include a search box 704 forentering a call agent's name to view the call agent's availabilitystatus. Moreover, the indications of other call agents may be sortedaccording to groups 720 such as “Frequent Contacts,” may be sortedaccording to status 722 such as “Available,” “In a meeting,” “Offline,”etc., and/or may be sorted according to relationship 724 such as“Manager,” “Assistant,” etc.

The CTI server device 110 may obtain an indication of availabilitystatus for each call agent via the call agent's call agent profile. Forexample, when a call agent is not logged into her call agent profile,the CTI server device 110 may generate an “Offline” indication for thecall agent on the presence display 700. When the call agent logs intoher call agent profile, the CTI server device 110 may obtain anindication that the call agent has logged in, and/or may automaticallygenerate an “Available” indication for the call agent on the presencedisplay 700. In some embodiments, the call agent may be able to set adefault availability status such that when the call agent logs in ordoes not adjust her status, the CTI server device 110 may generate thedefault status when the call agent is not offline. In another example,when a call agent is on a telephone call, the CTI server device 110 mayreceive an indication that the call agent is on the telephone, such as abusy signal and/or any other suitable indication. As a result, the CTIserver device 110 may automatically generate an “On the Phone”indication for the call agent on the presence display 700. When the callagent hangs up the telephone or ends the telephone call in any othersuitable manner, the CTI server device 110 may receive an indicationthat the call agent is no longer on the telephone, such as a dial toneor any other suitable indicator. As a result, the CTI server device 110may automatically generate an “Available” indication for the call agenton the presence display 700.

The call agent may also change her availability status based upon hercurrent availability. For example, the presence display 700 may includea user control 726, such as a drop-down menu, for selecting anavailability status from several availability statuses (such as“Available,” “In a meeting,” “On the Phone,” “Out to Lunch,” “Availablefor Urgent Communications Only,” etc.). The viewing call agent (e.g.,Bob White) may set a current availability status via the user control726, and as a result, the CTI server device 110 may generate the currentavailability status for Bob White on other call agent's respectivepresence displays.

In some embodiments, the CTI server device 110 may generate names ofcall agents and indications of their respective availability status onthe presence display 700, for call agents which the viewing call agent(e.g., Bob White) has permission to access, according to the securitygroups in which the viewing call agent belongs. For example, if BobWhite belongs to a security group which has permission to access “FireClaims Central,” via his call agent profile, Bob White may view JohnDoe, Jane Smith, and Richard Roe on the presence display 700 andindications of their respective availability statuses. On the otherhand, if Bob White does not belong to a security group that haspermission to access “Fire Claims Central,” and he does not belong toany security groups that would allow Bob to access contact informationfor any of these call agents then John Doe, Jane Smith, and Richard Roeand indications of their respective availability statuses may not appearon the presence display 700 for Bob White. In other embodiments, the CTIserver device 110 may generate names of call agents and indications oftheir respective availability status on the presence display 700 for allcall agents in the contact center network 150.

In an exemplary scenario, Bob White may receive an incoming call from acustomer that is routed to him by the CTI server device 110. The CTIserver device 110 may also transmit a customer call key associated withcustomer call information for the incoming call to Bob White's contactcenter device. When Bob receives the customer call key, he may retrievethe customer call information from the contact center customer callinformation database 126 to better assist the customer during the call.If Bob determines that another call agent may be more helpful inassisting the customer, he may look up contact information for anothercall agent using a contact center directory, such as the contact centerdirectory display 400 as shown in FIG. 4A.

For example, Bob White may determine that a call agent in the “FireClaims Central” contact center service category may be more helpful inassisting the customer, and accordingly, he may view contact informationfor John Doe, Jane Smith, and Richard Roe. Additionally, Bob may vieweach of their respective availability statuses on the presence display700 and/or determine that John Doe and Jane Smith are available 706 b,708 b, while Richard Roe is offline 714 b. As a result, Bob may transferthe call to Jane Smith, by selecting the “Transfer” button 430 on thecontact center directory display 400, and/or he may transmit thecustomer call key to Jane Smith via her phone number listed on thecontact center directory display 400.

While the presence display 700 includes five call agents for the“Frequent Contacts” group, this is merely for ease of illustration only.The presence display 700 may include any suitable number of groups,statuses, relationships, etc., and any suitable number of call agentsfor each group, status and/or relationship.

VIII. Exemplary Method for Call Agent Telephone Call Transfers

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of managing a call agent tocall agent telephone call transfer may be provided. The method mayinclude: (1) receiving, by a first call agent located at a contactcenter, a customer call from a customer and customer call informationfor responding to the customer call; (2) generating (via the one or moreprocessors) a customer call key corresponding to the customer callinformation, wherein the customer call key is transferred from callagent to call agent in a computer-telephony integration system when thecustomer call is transferred; and/or (3) storing (via the one or moreprocessors) the customer call information and the customer call key as areference to the corresponding customer call information in a database.The method may further include: (4) transferring the customer call (viathe one or more processors and/or wired or wireless communication and/ordata transmission) from the first call agent to a second call agentalong with the customer call key; (5) using the call to retrieve (viathe one or more processors) the customer information associated with thecustomer call key from the database; and/or (6) presenting (via the oneor more processors and/or wired or wireless communication and/or datatransmission) the customer call information on a display for use by thesecond call agent during the customer call with the customer tofacilitate alleviating electronically transferring sensitive informationbetween call agents and/or to reduce an amount of data electronicallytransferred between call agents during telephone call transfers.

The method may also include receiving (via the one or more processorsand/or wired or wireless communication and/or data transmission) andfrom each of a plurality of call agents within the computer-telephonyintegration system, an indication of availability of the respective callagent to communicate with users of the computer-telephony integrationsystem over the communication network; presenting (via the one or moreprocessors) the indications of availability and identificationinformation for each of the plurality of call agents on the display;and/or presenting (via the one or more processors) a user control forsearching the plurality of call agents on the display for use by thesecond call agent to view an indication of availability for a particularcall agent of the plurality of call agents.

The act of receiving an indication of availability of the respectivecall agent may include receiving (via the one or more processors and/orwired or wireless communication and/or data transmission) from a contactcenter device of the respective call agent, an indication that therespective call agent is on a telephone call; setting (via the one ormore processors) the indication of availability for the respective callagent to indicate that the respective call agent is on the telephone;upon completion of the telephone call, receiving (via the one or moreprocessors and/or wired or wireless communication and/or datatransmission) from a contact center device of the respective call agent,an indication that the respective call agent is available; and/orsetting (via the one or more processors) the indication of availabilityfor the respective call agent to indicate that the respective call agentis available.

A display may be a first display and the act of receiving an indicationof availability of the respective call agent may include presenting (viathe one or more processors and/or wired or wireless communication and/ordata transmission) one or more user controls for selecting an indicationof availability from a plurality of availabilities on a second displayfor the respective call agent; and/or receiving (via the one or moreprocessors and/or wired or wireless communication and/or datatransmission) the indication of availability for the respective callagent based upon a selection of the one or more user controls on thesecond display.

Moreover, the method may include receiving (via the one or moreprocessors and/or wired or wireless communication and/or datatransmission) at least some of the customer call information via naturallanguage processing in an interactive voice response (IVR) module;determining (via the one or more processors) additional customer callinformation by comparing the received at least some customer callinformation to previously stored customer personal information and whenthere is a match, determining the additional customer call informationby obtaining the previously stored customer personal information; and/ortransferring the customer call (via the one or more processors and/orwired or wireless communication and/or data transmission) from the IVRmodule to the first call agent along with the customer call key. The actof determining additional customer call information may includereceiving (via the one or more processors and/or wired or wirelesscommunication and/or data transmission), a phone number for the customerwhen the customer call is received; comparing (via the one or moreprocessors) the received phone number to previously stored customerphone numbers; and/or when there is a match, obtaining (via the one ormore processors) insurance policy information associated with thepreviously stored customer phone number. The method may includeadditional, fewer, or alternative actions, including those discussedelsewhere herein.

For instance, the act of transferring the customer call from the firstcall agent to a second call agent may include presenting (via the one ormore processors and/or wired or wireless communication and/or datatransmission) a set of contact information for the second call agent ona display for use by the first call agent during the customer call withthe customer; presenting (via the one or more processors and/or wired orwireless communication and/or data transmission) one or more usercontrols for transferring, dialing, or conferencing, the second callagent on the display for use by the first call agent; and/ortransferring the customer call (via the one or more processors and/orwired or wireless communication and/or data transmission) from the firstcall agent to the second call agent along with the customer call key,upon receiving a selection from the first call agent via the one or moreuser controls to transfer the customer call to the second call agent.

The customer call key may be an eight digit alphanumeric characterstring. Customer call information may include at least one of:identification information for the customer, a subject of an inquiry bythe customer, or insurance policy information for the customer.

IX. Exemplary System for Call Agent Telephone Call Transfers

In another aspect, a system of managing a call agent to call agenttelephone call transfer may be provided. The system may include one ormore processors; a communication network; a database; a first contactcenter device for a first call agent located at a contact center(wherein a customer call from a customer and customer call informationfor responding to the customer call are received at the first contactcenter device); a second contact center device for a second call agent;and/or a non-transitory computer-readable memory communicatively coupledto the one or more processors, the first contact center device, thesecond contact center device, the communication network, and thedatabase and storing thereon instructions. When executed by the one ormore processors, the instructions may cause the system to: (1) receivethe customer call information, via the communication network and fromthe first call agent; (2) generate a customer call key corresponding tothe customer call information, wherein the customer call key istransferred from call agent to call agent in a computer-telephonyintegration system when the customer call is transferred; and/or (3)store the customer call information and the customer call key as areference to the corresponding customer call information in thedatabase. The instructions may further cause the system to: (4) transferthe customer call, via the communication network, from the first callagent to the second call agent along with the customer call key; (5) usethe call key to retrieve the customer information associated with thecustomer call key from the database; and/or (6) present, via thecommunication network, the customer call information on a display foruse by the second call agent during the customer call with the customerto facilitate alleviating electronically transferring sensitiveinformation between call agents and/or to reduce an amount of dataelectronically transferred between call agents during telephone calltransfers. The system may include additional, fewer, or alternatecomponents and/or functionality, including that discussed elsewhereherein.

For instance, the instructions may further cause the system to receive,via the communication network and from each of a plurality of callagents within the computer-telephony integration system, an indicationof availability of the respective call agent to communicate with usersof the computer-telephony integration system over the communicationnetwork; present, via the communication network, the indications ofavailability and identification information for each of the plurality ofcall agents on the display; and/or present, via the communicationnetwork, a user control for searching the plurality of call agents onthe display for use by the second call agent to view an indication ofavailability for a particular call agent of the plurality of callagents.

To receive an indication of availability of the respective call agent,the instructions may cause the system to receive, via the communicationnetwork from a contact center device of the respective call agent, anindication that the respective call agent is on a telephone call; setthe indication of availability for the respective call agent to indicatethat the respective call agent is on the telephone; upon completion ofthe telephone call, receive, via the communication network from thecontact center device of the respective call agent, an indication thatthe respective call agent is available; and/or set the indication ofavailability for the respective call agent to indicate that therespective call agent is available. A display may be a first display andto receive an indication of availability of the respective call agent,the instructions may cause the system to present, via the communicationnetwork, one or more user controls for selecting an indication ofavailability from a plurality of availabilities on a second display forthe respective call agent; and/or receive, via the communicationnetwork, the indication of availability for the respective call agentbased upon a selection of the one or more user controls on the seconddisplay.

The instructions may further cause the system to receive at least someof the customer call information via natural language processing in aninteractive voice response (IVR) module; determine additional customercall information by comparing the received at least some customer callinformation to previously stored customer personal information and whenthere is a match, determining the additional customer call informationby obtaining the previously stored customer personal information; and/ortransfer the customer call, via the communication network, from the IVRmodule to the first call agent along with the customer call key. Todetermine additional customer call information, the instructions maycause the system to receive a phone number for the customer when thecustomer call is received; compare the received phone number topreviously stored customer phone numbers; and/or when there is a match,obtain insurance policy information associated with the previouslystored customer phone number.

Furthermore, to transfer the customer call from the first call agent toa second call agent, the instructions may cause the system to present,via the communication network, a set of contact information for thesecond call agent on a display for use by the first call agent duringthe customer call with the customer; present, via the communicationnetwork, one or more user controls for transferring, dialing, orconferencing, the second call agent on the display for use by the firstcall agent; and/or transfer the customer call, via the communicationnetwork from the first call agent to the second call agent along withthe customer call key, upon receiving a selection from the first callagent via the one or more user controls to transfer the customer call tothe second call agent.

The customer call key may be, for example, an eight digit alphanumericcharacter string. Customer call information may include at least one of:identification information for the customer, a subject of an inquiry bythe customer, or insurance policy information for the customer.

X. Exemplary Embodiments

The present embodiments may relate to creating a scalable ComputerTelephony Integration (CTI) application that meets the needs of all of alarge enterprise's many and varied business areas while utilizing andovercoming the limitation of existing infrastructure to pass largeamounts of data. The present embodiments may include the ability to (1)pass customer information generically from call agent to call agent; (2)create and easily maintain call center phone directories and/or onlyshow call agents directories relevant to their work; (3) providesimplified application login to a correct gateway server usingworkstation credentials; and/or (4) provide agent or representative callstatus or presence information.

Exemplary Call Key

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of managing a call center(CC) representative to CC representative telephone call transfer may beprovided. A “call key” may be generated and used for the life of acustomer call. The call key may be used to pass information between callcenter (CC) representatives. For instance, when a customer call istransferred among call representatives, the call key may also betransferred. Different call representatives may work with differentsystems. The call key may be used by the different systems and/or callrepresentatives to access customer data and/or insurance policyinformation. As a result, data security may be enhanced as only the callkey needs to be transferred between representatives, and not sensitiveor policy information.

Also, by using the call key to access customer information related to acurrent customer call, and/or stored in a database, the callrepresentative may avoid asking the customer annoying and/or repetitiveor the same questions for a second time. As a result, a customer may bepassed from one CC representative to another without requiring thecustomer to repeat information and/or answer the same questions. Thecall key may allow a telephone call to be transferred amongrepresentatives without requiring personal or sensitive information tobe passed along as well. This may enhance security, as well as systemperformance due to limited capacity for passing data electronically.

One embodiment may include the use of Router Call Key Router Call Day(rckrcd) data to pass customer call information and/or to retrievecustomer data. The customer data may be previously stored customer dataor customer data stored during the present customer call, and as aresult, a customer may not be required to repeat information.

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of managing a call centerrepresentative to call center representative telephone call transfer maybe provided. The method may include (1) receiving a customer call from acustomer by a first call center representative located at a call center;(2) generating, via one or more processors, a call key associated withthe customer call, the call key existing and being used for the life ofthe customer call and/or to transfer customer and/or policy informationbetween representatives; (3) storing, via one or more processors,customer information and/or insurance policy related informationgathered from the customer during the customer call and/or determined bythe first call center representative while talking with the customer;(4) transferring the customer call, via one or more processors, from thefirst call center representative to a second call center representativealong with the call key; (5) using the call key to retrieve, via one ormore processors, from a memory unit the customer information and/orinsurance policy related information gathered from the customer duringthe customer call and/or determined by the first call centerrepresentative while talking with the customer; and/or (6) presenting,via one or more processors, the customer information and/or insurancepolicy related information gathered from the customer during thecustomer call and/or determined by the first call center representativewhile talking with the customer on a display for use by the second callcenter representative during the customer call with the customer tofacilitate alleviating electronically transferring sensitive informationbetween call center representatives and/or reduce an amount of dataelectronically transferred between call center representatives duringtelephone call transfers. The method may include additional, less, oralternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

Exemplary Call Center Directory Management

A web-based interface may be created to allow call center administratorsto maintain call center directories. A web service may provide directoryinformation to a CTI system or server. As an example, a database systemmay be created or designed such that it can be managed by individualcall centers. Changes made to phone numbers and/or groups may be madeonce and then be immediately propagated throughout duplicate uses withinthe call center directory.

The present embodiments may include use of an independent web page tomanage directories. Access keyed to Lightweight Directory AccessProtocol (LDAP) group and database design may allow information to bechanged in one place and promulgated throughout the directory.

In another aspect, a central administration page may allow forautomatically updating certain information throughout a system and/oracross different categories or servers. For instance, categories mayrelate to various types of service, such as towing or auto repair. Thecentral administration page may allow for automatically updating newtelephone numbers for the services and/or security groups.

In one respect, a virtual “phone book” for a call agent may be created.The virtual phone book may be based upon a profile, a security rating orgroup, and/or line of business (e.g., auto, home, or life insurance, orvehicle or home loans) associated with a call agent. A menu may bepresent having a number of categories, such as claims; underwriting;quoting; binding; and/or individual state (e.g., Illinois). Eachcategory in the menu may have a drill down menu. The virtual phone bookmay help ensure that a particular call agent is presented withinformation that is relevant to their work or line of business. Thevirtual phone book may be used to limit what types of information thatthe call agent sees on their computer display.

In one embodiment, dividing call agents into groups based upon theirprofiles may allow for directories to be more maintainable. By changinga phone number of a call agent one time, the change may be made in allsecurity groups, permission or access level groupings, or othergroupings, such a grouping associated with a catastrophic orinsurance-related event. Editing of profiles may also be allowed.

Exemplary Gateway Login

A database may be created that pulls all gateway login information fromvarious call environments into one table and a web service utilized bythe CTI to authorize and individualize login. Software may be used topull all relevant information from respective servers and place thatinformation into one database. Tables may be added to a database thatdynamically identifies all necessary gateways.

In one embodiment, an automated means of login into a system may beprovided that streamlines the determination of which gateway a customerrepresentative should be utilizing to access a computer system. Theautomated means aligns a customer representative to an appropriateworking group or area, or line of business, such that incoming customercalls may be directed to an appropriate type of customer representative.

For instance, as a call representative enters their login information,the system may automatically look up a gateway (and/or routing server)that is assigned to the call representative or that the callrepresentative is supposed to use (such as by using a user profile). Thegateway may allow the call representative to automatically login andaccess the system or a specific server via their computer, such asserver serving or dedicated to an individual working group or functionalarea (such as a claims or service department).

In one embodiment, each call agent may have several profiles, and eachprofile for the call agent may utilize a different server. As such, adata structure may store several profile/server pairs for each callagent having multiple profiles. The profile/server pairs may facilitatemapping a call agent to the correct server (or login gateway) inreal-time or at runtime.

Dynamically mapping a call agent to the server corresponding to theprofile that they are currently using may be beneficial and reduceinefficiencies, inconvenience, or mistakes. As an example, a given callagent may have a first profile associated with a specific line ofbusiness (auto insurance) for use on the weekend or Saturday, and asecond profile associated with a different line of business (homeinsurance) for weekdays or Friday, and a third profile associated withanother line of business (life insurance) for week nights. The firstprofile may be mapped to a default server, the second profile may bemapped to Server 1, and the third profile may be mapped to Server 10.

If a call agent has more than one profile, one may be a default profile.Each profile that is created for a call representative may restrict thetype of calls and/or data that the call representative may receiveand/or have access to. For instance, a profile may only allow the callrepresentative to see certain numbers or access certain security groups.Each profile may be used by the system to route different types of callsto the call representative.

In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of logging onto aparticular server selected from among multiple servers may be provided.The method may include (1) receiving, via one or more processors, arequest to log into a CTI or other system that is generated from acomputer associated with a call agent; (2) determining or otherwiseselecting, via the one or more processors, a profile for the call agentbased upon (i) the computer associated with the call agent, (ii) time ofday, (iii) day of week, (iv) line of business (auto, home, lifeinsurance, for instance), and/or (v) a GPS (Global Positioning System)or other location of the computer associated with the call agent; (3)determining or otherwise selecting, via the one or more processors, aserver from among multiple servers for the call agent to log into theCTI or other system using or based upon the selected profile; and/or (4)logging the computer associated with the call agent into the CTI orother system, via the one or more processors, using or based upon theselected profile and/or selected server to facilitate mapping the callagent to a correct server that is appropriate for the call agent to usegiven the time of day, day of week, line of business, current computer,and/or location and/or to facilitate the call agent performing one ormore services related to insurance products, such as providing quotes orinformation, selling insurance, and/or accepting/handling insuranceclaims. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions,including those discussed elsewhere herein.

Exemplary Presence Information

In another aspect, a computer-implemented method of publishing a currentstatus of (and/or presence information associated with) call center (CC)representatives may be provided. A module may be provided thatdetermines, updates, and/or then displays the current call status ofeach CC representative for others in an organization to see. Forinstance, in some situations, it may be desirable to transfer a customerto a specific or original call representative that the customer wasdealing with or talking to. Another call representative may use theupdated status to determine whether or not the original callrepresentative is available to handle the call, or if the original callrepresentative is on another call and/or otherwise unavailable. As aresult, a telephone call may not be transferred to a new callrepresentative if that new call representative is busy or otherwiseunavailable.

The presence information may be triggered by certain events.Additionally or alternatively, the presence information may bedetermined by the CTI system or server. The presence information may beused to determine which profile that the call representative wants tolog into.

XI. Additional Considerations

Although the following text sets forth a detailed description ofnumerous different embodiments, it should be understood that the legalscope of the description is defined by the words of the claims set forthat the end of this patent and equivalents. The detailed description isto be construed as exemplary only and does not describe every possibleembodiment since describing every possible embodiment would beimpractical. Numerous alternative embodiments may be implemented, usingeither current technology or technology developed after the filing dateof this patent, which would still fall within the scope of the claims.

It should also be understood that, unless a term is expressly defined inthis patent using the sentence “As used herein, the term ‘_(——————)’ ishereby defined to mean . . . ” or a similar sentence, there is no intentto limit the meaning of that term, either expressly or by implication,beyond its plain or ordinary meaning, and such term should not beinterpreted to be limited in scope based upon any statement made in anysection of this patent (other than the language of the claims). To theextent that any term recited in the claims at the end of this patent isreferred to in this patent in a manner consistent with a single meaning,that is done for sake of clarity only so as to not confuse the reader,and it is not intended that such claim term be limited, by implicationor otherwise, to that single meaning. Finally, unless a claim element isdefined by reciting the word “means” and a function without the recitalof any structure, it is not intended that the scope of any claim elementbe interpreted based upon the application of 35 U.S.C. §112, sixthparagraph.

The patent claims at the end of this patent application are not intendedto be construed under 35 U.S.C. §112(f) unless traditionalmeans-plus-function language is expressly recited, such as “means for”or “step for” language being explicitly recited in the claim(s).

Accordingly, the term “security group,” as used herein, may be used torefer to a group of user accounts, computer accounts, and/or othersecurity groups which receive permission to access a certain secure dataasset when the security group has permission to access the secure dataasset.

As used herein, the term “secure data asset” may be used to refer tocomputer hardware (e.g., servers and switches), software, and/orconfidential information owned by an organization. For example, securedata assets may include confidential files, proprietary information,user account information, databases, network drives, data tables withina database, files within a network drive, etc.

The term “contact center” as used herein, may be used to refer to anintegrated, automated communications system that coordinates telephoneand electronic contacts between an organization and the public. Forexample, a contact center may include several call agents withworkstations that include a computing device and/or a telephoneset/headset for each call agent for communicating with customers. Voiceand/or data pathways to the contact center may be linked throughcomputer-telephony integration.

Furthermore, the term “call agent” as used herein, may be used to referto a person who handles incoming or outgoing customer calls at a contactcenter for an organization. For example, a call agent may addresscustomer inquiries, customer complaints, and/or support issues. Eachcall agent may have a workstation at the contact center which mayinclude a computing device and/or a telephone set/headset forcommunicating with customers and/or other call agents.

The term “insurance provider” as used herein, generally refers to aparty and/or entity (e.g., a business and/or other organizationalentity) that provides insurance products, e.g., by offering and/orissuing insurance policies. Typically, but not necessarily an insuranceprovider may be an insurance company. Further, an insurance provider maybe any individual, group of individuals, company, corporation, and/orother type of entity that may issue insurance policies for customers,such as insurance policies associated with properties.

Additionally, the term “insurance policy,” as used herein, generallyrefers to a contract between an insurer and an insured. In exchange forpayments from the insured, the insurer pays for damages to the insuredwhich are caused by covered perils, acts or events as specified by thelanguage of the insurance policy. The payments from the insured aregenerally referred to as “premiums,” and typically are paid on behalf ofthe insured upon purchase of the insurance policy or over time atperiodic intervals. The amount of the damages payment is generallyreferred to as a “coverage amount” or a “face amount” of the insurancepolicy. An insurance policy may remain (or have a status or state of)“in-force” while premium payments are made during the term or length ofcoverage of the policy as indicated in the policy. An insurance policymay “lapse” (or have a status or state of “lapsed”), for example, whenthe parameters of the insurance policy have expired, when premiumpayments are not being paid, when a cash value of a policy falls belowan amount specified in the policy, or if the insured or the insurercancels the policy.

The following additional considerations apply to the foregoingdiscussion. Throughout this specification, plural instances mayimplement components, operations, or structures described as a singleinstance. Although individual operations of one or more methods areillustrated and described as separate operations, one or more of theindividual operations may be performed concurrently, and nothingrequires that the operations be performed in the order illustrated.Structures and functionality presented as separate components in exampleconfigurations may be implemented as a combined structure or component.Similarly, structures and functionality presented as a single componentmay be implemented as separate components. These and other variations,modifications, additions, and improvements fall within the scope of thesubject matter herein.

Additionally, certain embodiments are described herein as includinglogic or a number of routines, subroutines, applications, orinstructions. These may constitute either software (e.g., code embodiedon a machine-readable medium or in a transmission signal) or hardware.In hardware, the routines, etc., are tangible units capable ofperforming certain operations and may be configured or arranged in acertain manner. In example embodiments, one or more computer systems(e.g., a standalone, client or server computer system) or one or morehardware modules of a computer system (e.g., a processor or a group ofprocessors) may be configured by software (e.g., an application orapplication portion) as a hardware module that operates to performcertain operations as described herein.

In various embodiments, a hardware module may be implementedmechanically or electronically. For example, a hardware module maycomprise dedicated circuitry or logic that is permanently configured(e.g., as a special-purpose processor, such as a field programmable gatearray (FPGA) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) toperform certain operations. A hardware module may also compriseprogrammable logic or circuitry (e.g., as encompassed within ageneral-purpose processor or other programmable processor) that istemporarily configured by software to perform certain operations. Itwill be appreciated that the decision to implement a hardware modulemechanically, in dedicated and permanently configured circuitry, or intemporarily configured circuitry (e.g., configured by software) may bedriven by cost and time considerations.

Accordingly, the term “hardware module” should be understood toencompass a tangible entity, be that an entity that is physicallyconstructed, permanently configured (e.g., hardwired), or temporarilyconfigured (e.g., programmed) to operate in a certain manner or toperform certain operations described herein. Considering embodiments inwhich hardware modules are temporarily configured (e.g., programmed),each of the hardware modules need not be configured or instantiated atany one instance in time. For example, where the hardware modulescomprise a general-purpose processor configured using software, thegeneral-purpose processor may be configured as respective differenthardware modules at different times. Software may accordingly configurea processor, for example, to constitute a particular hardware module atone instance of time and to constitute a different hardware module at adifferent instance of time.

Hardware modules may provide information to, and receive informationfrom, other hardware modules. Accordingly, the described hardwaremodules may be regarded as being communicatively coupled. Where multipleof such hardware modules exist contemporaneously, communications may beachieved through signal transmission (e.g., over appropriate circuitsand buses) that connect the hardware modules. In embodiments in whichmultiple hardware modules are configured or instantiated at differenttimes, communications between such hardware modules may be achieved, forexample, through the storage and retrieval of information in memorystructures to which the multiple hardware modules have access. Forexample, one hardware module may perform an operation and store theoutput of that operation in a memory device to which it iscommunicatively coupled. A further hardware module may then, at a latertime, access the memory device to retrieve and process the storedoutput. Hardware modules may also initiate communications with input oroutput devices, and may operate on a resource (e.g., a collection ofinformation).

The various operations of example methods described herein may beperformed, at least partially, by one or more processors that aretemporarily configured (e.g., by software) or permanently configured toperform the relevant operations. Whether temporarily or permanentlyconfigured, such processors may constitute processor-implemented modulesthat operate to perform one or more operations or functions. The modulesreferred to herein may, in some example embodiments, compriseprocessor-implemented modules.

Similarly, the methods or routines described herein may be at leastpartially processor-implemented. For example, at least some of theoperations of a method may be performed by one or more processors orprocessor-implemented hardware modules. The performance of certain ofthe operations may be distributed among the one or more processors, notonly residing within a single machine, but deployed across a number ofmachines. In some example embodiments, the processor or processors maybe located in a single location (e.g., within a home environment, anoffice environment or as a server farm), while in other embodiments theprocessors may be distributed across a number of locations.

The performance of certain of the operations may be distributed amongthe one or more processors, not only residing within a single machine,but deployed across a number of machines. In some example embodiments,the one or more processors or processor-implemented modules may belocated in a single geographic location (e.g., within a homeenvironment, an office environment, or a server farm). In other exampleembodiments, the one or more processors or processor-implemented modulesmay be distributed across a number of geographic locations.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using wordssuch as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,”“presenting,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions orprocesses of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transformsdata represented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical)quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory,non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or othermachine components that receive, store, transmit, or displayinformation.

As used herein any reference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular element, feature, structure, or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in variousplaces in the specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and“connected” along with their derivatives. For example, some embodimentsmay be described using the term “coupled” to indicate that two or moreelements are in direct physical or electrical contact. The term“coupled,” however, may also mean that two or more elements are not indirect contact with each other, but yet still co-operate or interactwith each other. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited to only those elements but may include otherelements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary,“or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example,a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true(or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or notpresent) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (orpresent).

In addition, use of the “a” or “an” are employed to describe elementsand components of the embodiments herein. This is done merely forconvenience and to give a general sense of the description. Thisdescription, and the claims that follow, should be read to include oneor at least one and the singular also includes the plural unless it isobvious that it is meant otherwise.

This detailed description is to be construed as exemplary only and doesnot describe every possible embodiment, as describing every possibleembodiment would be impractical, if not impossible. One may implementnumerous alternate embodiments, using either current technology ortechnology developed after the filing date of this application.

We claim:
 1. A computer-implemented method of managing a call agent tocall agent telephone call transfer, the method executed by one or moreprocessors programmed to perform the method, the method comprising:receiving, by a first call agent located at a contact center, a customercall from a customer and customer call information for responding to thecustomer call; generating, via one or more processors, a customer callkey corresponding to the customer call information, wherein the customercall key is transferred from call agent to call agent in acomputer-telephony integration system when the customer call istransferred; storing, via the one or more processors, the customer callinformation and the customer call key as a reference to thecorresponding customer call information in a database; transferring thecustomer call, via the one or more processors, from the first call agentto a second call agent along with the customer call key withouttransferring the customer call information; using the call key toretrieve, via the one or more processors, the customer informationassociated with the customer call key from the database; and presenting,via the one or more processors, the customer call information on adisplay for use by the second call agent during the customer call withthe customer to facilitate alleviating electronically transferringsensitive information between call agents and to reduce an amount ofdata electronically transferred between call agents during telephonecall transfers.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving,via the one or more processors and from each of a plurality of callagents within the computer-telephony integration system, an indicationof availability of the respective call agent to communicate with usersof the computer-telephony integration system over the communicationnetwork; and presenting, via the one or more processors, the indicationsof availability and identification information for each of the pluralityof call agents on the display.
 3. The method of claim 2, whereinreceiving an indication of availability of the respective call agentcomprises: receiving, via the one or more processors from a contactcenter device of the respective call agent, an indication that therespective call agent is on a telephone call; setting, via the one ormore processors, the indication of availability for the respective callagent to indicate that the respective call agent is on the telephone;upon completion of the telephone call, receiving, via the one or moreprocessors from the contact center device of the respective call agent,an indication that the respective call agent is available; and setting,via the one or more processors, the indication of availability for therespective call agent to indicate that the respective call agent isavailable.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein a display is a firstdisplay and wherein receiving an indication of availability of therespective call agent comprises: presenting, via the one or moreprocessors, one or more user controls for selecting an indication ofavailability from a plurality of availabilities on a second display forthe respective call agent; and receiving, via the one or moreprocessors, the indication of availability for the respective call agentbased upon a selection of the one or more user controls on the seconddisplay.
 5. The method of claim 2, further comprising: presenting, viathe one or more processors, a user control for searching the pluralityof call agents on the display for use by the second call agent to viewan indication of availability for a particular call agent of theplurality of call agents.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving, via the one or more processors, at least some of the customercall information via natural language processing in an interactive voiceresponse (IVR) module; determining, via the one or more processors,additional customer call information by comparing the received at leastsome customer call information to previously stored customer personalinformation and when there is a match, determining the additionalcustomer call information by obtaining the previously stored customerpersonal information; and transferring the customer call, via the one ormore processors, from the IVR module to the first call agent along withthe customer call key.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein determiningadditional customer call information comprises: receiving, via the oneor more processors, a phone number for the customer when the customercall is received; comparing, via the one or more processors, thereceived phone number to previously stored customer phone numbers; andwhen there is a match, obtaining, via the one or more processors,insurance policy information associated with the previously storedcustomer phone number.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein transferringthe customer call from the first call agent to a second call agentcomprises: presenting, via the one or more processors, a set of contactinformation for the second call agent on a display for use by the firstcall agent during the customer call with the customer; presenting, viathe one or more processors, one or more user controls for transferring,dialing, or conferencing, the second call agent on the display for useby the first call agent; and transferring the customer call, via the oneor more processors from the first call agent to the second call agentalong with the customer call key, upon receiving a selection from thefirst call agent via the one or more user controls to transfer thecustomer call to the second call agent.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the customer call key is an eight digit alphanumeric characterstring.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein customer call informationincludes at least one of: identification information for the customer, asubject of an inquiry by the customer, or insurance policy informationfor the customer.
 11. A system of managing a call agent to call agenttelephone call transfer, the system comprising: one or more processors;a communication network; a database; a first contact center device for afirst call agent located at a contact center, wherein a customer callfrom a customer and customer call information for responding to thecustomer call are received at the first contact center device; a secondcontact center device for a second call agent; and a non-transitorycomputer-readable memory communicatively coupled to the one or moreprocessors, the first contact center device, the second contact centerdevice, the communication network, and the database, and storing thereoninstructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causethe system to: receive the customer call information, via thecommunication network and from the first call agent; generate a customercall key corresponding to the customer call information, wherein thecustomer call key is transferred from call agent to call agent in acomputer-telephony integration system when the customer call istransferred; store the customer call information and the customer callkey as a reference to the corresponding customer call information in thedatabase; transfer the customer call, via the communication network,from the first call agent to the second call agent along with thecustomer call key without transferring the customer call information;use the call key to retrieve the customer information associated withthe customer call key from the database; and present, via thecommunication network, the customer call information on a display foruse by the second call agent during the customer call with the customerto facilitate alleviating electronically transferring sensitiveinformation between call agents and to reduce an amount of dataelectronically transferred between call agents during telephone calltransfers.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions furthercause the system to: receive, via the communication network and fromeach of a plurality of call agents within the computer-telephonyintegration system, an indication of availability of the respective callagent to communicate with users of the computer-telephony integrationsystem over the communication network; and present, via thecommunication network, the indications of availability andidentification information for each of the plurality of call agents onthe display.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein to receive anindication of availability of the respective call agent, theinstructions cause the system to: receive, via the communication networkfrom a contact center device of the respective call agent, an indicationthat the respective call agent is on a telephone call; set theindication of availability for the respective call agent to indicatethat the respective call agent is on the telephone; upon completion ofthe telephone call, receive, via the communication network from thecontact center device of the respective call agent, an indication thatthe respective call agent is available; and set the indication ofavailability for the respective call agent to indicate that therespective call agent is available.
 14. The system of claim 12, whereina display is a first display and wherein to receive an indication ofavailability of the respective call agent, the instructions cause thesystem to: present, via the communication network, one or more usercontrols for selecting an indication of availability from a plurality ofavailabilities on a second display for the respective call agent; andreceive, via the communication network, the indication of availabilityfor the respective call agent based upon a selection of the one or moreuser controls on the second display.
 15. The system of claim 12, whereinthe instructions further cause the system to: present, via thecommunication network, a user control for searching the plurality ofcall agents on the display for use by the second call agent to view anindication of availability for a particular call agent of the pluralityof call agents.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructionsfurther cause the system to: receive at least some of the customer callinformation via natural language processing in an interactive voiceresponse (IVR) module; determine additional customer call information bycomparing the received at least some customer call information topreviously stored customer personal information and when there is amatch, determining the additional customer call information by obtainingthe previously stored customer personal information; and transfer thecustomer call, via the communication network, from the IVR module to thefirst call agent along with the customer call key.
 17. The system ofclaim 16, wherein to determine additional customer call information, theinstructions cause the system to: receive a phone number for thecustomer when the customer call is received; compare the received phonenumber to previously stored customer phone numbers; and when there is amatch, obtain insurance policy information associated with thepreviously stored customer phone number.
 18. The system of claim 11,wherein to transfer the customer call from the first call agent to asecond call agent, the instructions cause the system to: present, viathe communication network, a set of contact information for the secondcall agent on a display for use by the first call agent during thecustomer call with the customer; present, via the communication network,one or more user controls for transferring, dialing, or conferencing,the second call agent on the display for use by the first call agent;and transfer the customer call, via the communication network from thefirst call agent to the second call agent along with the customer callkey, upon receiving a selection from the first call agent via the one ormore user controls to transfer the customer call to the second callagent.
 19. The system of claim 11, wherein the customer call key is aneight digit alphanumeric character string.
 20. The system of claim 11,wherein customer call information includes at least one of:identification information for the customer, a subject of an inquiry bythe customer, or insurance policy information for the customer.
 21. Acomputer-implemented method of managing a call center representative tocall center representative telephone call transfer, the methodcomprising: receiving a customer call from a customer by a first callcenter representative located at a call center; generating, via one ormore processors, a call key associated with the customer call, the callkey existing and being used for the life of the customer call and/or totransfer customer and/or policy information between representatives;storing, via the one or more processors, customer information and/orinsurance policy related information gathered from the customer duringthe customer call and/or determined by the first call centerrepresentative while talking with the customer; transferring thecustomer call, via the one or more processors, from the first callcenter representative to a second call center representative along withthe call key without transferring the customer call information; usingthe call key to retrieve, via the one or more processors, from a memoryunit the customer information and/or insurance policy relatedinformation gathered from the customer during the customer call and/ordetermined by the first call center representative while talking withthe customer; and/or presenting, via the one or more processors, thecustomer information and/or insurance policy related informationgathered from the customer during the customer call and/or determined bythe first call center representative while talking with the customer ona display for use by the second call center representative during thecustomer call with the customer to facilitate alleviating electronicallytransferring sensitive information between call center representativesand/or reduce an amount of data electronically transferred between callcenter representatives during telephone call transfers.